ABSTRACT
South Africa is a water scarce country, with less than 500mm of annual precipitation. The country also has a large rural population (40 per cent) that is logistically difficult to link to water and sanitation grids. Globally, the vast majority of people without access to clean water and improved sanitation are the rural poor. South Africa’s service backlog is also disproportionately borne by the African population, both rural and urban. In 1994, approximately 45 per cent of the urban black population had access to piped water, while coverage for other urban groups was close to 100 per cent. The South African Cities Network explained it thus:
It was the systemic function of the apartheid cities to ensure that white residents had all the social benefits of living in the city, and to deny black residents equal access to urban social goods and opportunities. The result is cities where very large proportions of the population are not included – materially or psychologically – in urban life.
(South African Cities Network, 2004, pp77–78) Since 1994, the South African government has undertaken massive reforms aimed at addressing poverty and inequalities inherited from the past regime. Inter alia, it has adopted ambitious new water legislation – the (National Water Act (NWA) of 1998 and the Water Services Act (WSA) of 1997 – that promotes equity, sustainability, representativity and efficiency through water management decentralization, new local and catchment-level organizations and institutions and improved access to services. Participation has been a guiding principle of reforms, including:civil society consultation and feedback into the implementation of legislation and constitutional guarantees;
user involvement in the development and management of decentralized water resource entities, such as catchment management agencies (CMAs) and water user associations.
