The Sustainability and Institutional Factors Impacting on Water Conservation Programmes in Local Government M. Ncube Ugu District Municipality, Water Services Department, P O Box 33, Port Shepstone, 4240. Email:
[email protected] Keywords: local government; water conservation, sustainability
Abstract Water conservation and demand management offers vast potential to conserving and maximizing beneficial use of the scarce water resource, particularly in the water stressed countries of Southern Africa. Although the intrinsic value of water conservation and demand management is undisputed, the success and permanency of WCDM programmes have been fraught with difficulties in many municipalities. This paper seeks to illustrate why the institutional threshold is critical to service delivery and in particular Water Conservation and Demand Management. The systems theory approach, which realizes that the whole is greater than the sum parts and that there are functional and structural relationships within the different components of a system, is the advocated approach that can ensure that WCDM and other such useful concepts can be implemented effectively, successfully and permanently. A selective system review of local government, particularly water services providers in district municipalities, and exposes the weakness of the current structures. Although the paper does not claim to offer off-the-shelf solutions, it offers a different approach that has tremendous potential of improving the success of service delivery.
Introduction Southern Africa and South Africa in particular, is a water stressed region which experiences varying rainfall patterns, both spatially and in magnitude. In South Africa, registered water use (not necessarily equal to actual use) is greater than the national yield by a magnitude of more than 3,000 million m3 (DWAF, 2008). DWAF (2004) projects the total water requirement in 2025 to be 17,000 million m3 per year against a yield of 15,000 million m3 per year at a 98% assurance of supply. This is a clear indicator of the scarcity and inherent value of the water resource in the country. It is therefore only prudent that effective, efficient and sustainable use of the available resources be employed as the water sector is a key driver in enhancing socio-economic growth within South Africa and elsewhere. Water conservation and demand management (WCDM) offers vast potential to conserving and maximizing beneficial use of the scarce water resource and is frequently far cheaper than supply management (e.g. Mkandla et. al., 2005 and Hoffman and du Plessis, 2008). Although the intrinsic value of water conservation and demand management is undisputed, the success and permanency of WCDM programmes have been fraught with difficulties (Ncube and Taigbenu, 2006; Mwendera et. al., 2003). It is normally implemented as a “quick fix” solution to a short term water supply problem despite being an important part of an integrated approach towards the effective management of water resources (Hoffman and du Plessis, 2008). Moreover, WCDM cannot be divorced from service delivery nor can it be exempt from all other issues bedevilling the local government arena. An understanding of the whole system, through a systems theory approach, which realizes that the whole is greater than the sum of parts and that there are functional and structural relationships within the different components of a system, is one approach that can ensure that WCDM and other useful concepts can be implemented effectively, successfully and permanently. The paper seeks to expose the numerous gaps through a selective system review of local government, particularly water services providers in district municipalities. It is advocated that only through the system theory approach can the problem facing the water sector be conclusively addressed. The basic premise is that the identified gaps are directly responsible for the decline in service delivery as a whole and water conservation in particular.
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Proceedings of the 5 IWA Water Loss Reduction Specialist Conference ISBN Number: 978-1-920017-38-5 Produced by: Document Transformation Technologies cc 559
26 – 30 April 2009 Cape Town, South Africa Organised by: Carlamani Conferences and Events
Municipal water provision as a system A system is defined as an assemblage of interrelated parts that work together by way of some driving processes to achieve specific goals. As such, viable systems must be strongly goaldirected, governed by feedback, and have the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. This is basically what local government is all about although it is not always expressly mentioned or understood. As with any system, local government has elements that define it. These include input, output, throughput or process, feedback, control, environment, objectives or goals. With respect to water provision, the main outputs expected from the system are the realisation of the objectives of the system such as to economically empower residents through efficient, sustainable and beneficial use of water. Following is a brief overview of the components of the water service system. The environment and objectives The water industry is regulated by a number of acts and frameworks which provide the necessary guidance on the provision of water services to the population. WRC (2009) aptly summarises the various legislation that impacts on water services provision as the Constitution, National Water Act, Water Services Act, Water Services Revision Bill, Municipal Structures Act, Municipal Systems Act, Public Finance Management Act, Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), National Water Resource Strategy and the Strategic Framework for Water Services. The following are the selected key gleans and objectives from legislation; •
Executive authority for the sustainable provision of water services is vested in local government
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National water resources must be used efficiently, sustainably and beneficial in an equitable manner
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The promotion of effective water resource management and conservation
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Division of powers and functions for municipality with common jurisdiction
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Alternative mechanisms for providing services must always first consider internal mechanisms
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Norms and standards for financial and procurement aspects
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Institutional reform to use existing capacity, skills and resources in an integrated and optimal way and to attract, develop and retain technical skills
The legislative framework is relatively strong and provides the required base for service provision. The environment within which municipality operate is clearly laid out, mapping
out responsibilities, liability and functions. It is this same environment that facilitates for processes, control and feedback mechanism within and externally i.e. the processes and controls are inherently in the operating environment. This validates one of the basic principles of systems that an open system and its environment are highly interrelated. Water conservation and water loss management in general is strongly implied in legislation and is seen as a pertinent requirement for water institutions. However, although terms such as sustainable, efficiency, effective, integrated and optimal are being used consistently, it is doubtful that their translation into practicality is successful. Practical experience shows that even in countries with the best laws, regulation and institutional framework, the actual performance of the water sector is very poor as in South Africa with a non-revenue water (NRW) of over 50% (Eldidy, 2008). Pybus and Schoeman (2008) are of the view that these tools and frameworks are often appropriate to the fewer, larger and more advanced municipalities (metropolitans) but are inappropriate for the rest. The important question then would be how these guiding principles are unfolded and effectively packaged into practical executable day to day tools (Kierk and Wagner, 2008). It must be emphasised that although policy provides the impetus needed for public service delivery, compliance for the case of compliance is neither sustainable nor profitable. Capacitated human drivers who understand the business and have both the authority and responsibility to make good business decisions that are also compliant remain the vital indispensable resource.
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System Input Lawless (2008) describes the precarious situation that local government is facing with regards to human resources with only two civil engineering professionals per 100,000 people. Senior technical posts are now more of management posts and are in numerous incidences occupied by non-technical managers while the few technical staff is overloaded with work. There are also unavoidable tendencies of outsourcing a lot of functions to external service providers as the expertise and/or the time using the in-house resources is not available. This inevitably leads to a vicious cycle depicted in Figure 1.1. Outsourced planning, design and construction
Collapsing systems
Shorter infrastructure lifespan; inadequate budgets
No system knowledge, no construction and maintenance expertise Incorrect O&M, no additional bulks
Figure 1.1: The project cycle.
In addition to the first two stages of Fig 1.1 there is inadequate review of designs, inadequate monitoring of contractors and expenditure focused projects at the expense of sound engineering. The repeat cycle of Fig 1.1 will be aiming at fast-tracking service delivery or eradicating backlogs and unfortunately has a compounded effect on the challenges as fast-track programmes rarely come with additional human resource for municipalities. Water conservation, life-cycle management or water cycle management are usually not a factor in the planning phase but may be retrofitted as an afterthought during the operation and maintenance stage. Unless such cycles can be broken, local government is setup for failure. Contract appointments for Section 57 employees remain a challenge due to uncertainties in renewals which are can also be underpinned by political expediency at any moment in time. The current model does not favour institutional memory. Funding is undoubtedly one of the most important inputs to the system. DWAF (2008) indicates that in order to realise the water targets a 500% and increase in funding in the next two years will be required! This is by no means an easy task. The “use-it-or-lose-it” principle for funding projects is also favouring expenditure focused projects which are also scoped for basic levels of service without capturing the change of lifestyle that is inevitable with the introduction of water services. An infrastructure focussed (number counting) target has also led to neglect of sustainability requirements (DWAF, 2008). Mwendera et. al., (2003) identifies lack of financial and human resources as the twin key constraints around which all other constraints tend to revolve. System Process Category B and C municipalities promulgated by the Municipal Structures Act have different powers and functions which are not only unfavourable to water cycle management but require effective communication and alignment rarely achieved in practice. The economies of scale benefits that accrue to metropolitans (Category A) do not apply as there are a lot of redundancies and duplication in municipalities that also have to compete for different rates from the same consumers. In addition, the very location of the district and local municipalities means that their revenue base is far much smaller implying smaller budgets and limited ability to attract skilled staff.
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Within the respective municipalities, the silo – effect is very pronounced with limited effective communication between departments. Support services such as Corporate Services, Human Resources etc are centralised and it takes a very long time to get anything done. Recruiting unskilled labour let alone skilled staff takes up a greater part of the year. Despite being protracted, the recruitment processes do not always yield the best candidates due to a number of factors that may include political and outdated recruitment methods which are not aggressive enough. The process of goal-directed organisational human resources skill mapping related to areas of functioning is also not happening (Pybus and Schoeman, 2008). This has invariably led to tailormaking jobs for people as opposed to finding the best person for the job – a source of great frustration to many technical persons who find themselves in similar levels with unqualified colleagues. Procurement processes while meant to ensure transparency are creating inefficiencies that are heavily impacting on service delivery. It is also felt that the process requires very scarce skills to implement and manage effectively (WRC, 2009). Figure 1.2 describes the pronounced domino - effect of the system processes on infrastructure lifespan and levels of leakage i.e. service delivery. Infrastructure lifespan is substantially reduced by the closely intertwined issues that stem from institutional inadequacies. Given the foregoing, it will not matter how many water loss programs are implemented to save the situation – what is required is a holistic approach which will ensure that a “cradle – to – grave” approach is implemented.
Sustainability of water conservation and service delivery Water conservation and demand management programmes have an ultimate objective of ensuring sustainability by minimising waste and maximising efficient and effective water use. As such, these programmes need to be sustainable themselves together with water resources that are being conserved. Sustainable water resource systems are systems that are designed and managed to fully contribute to the objectives of society, now and in the future, while maintaining their ecological, environmental and hydrological integrity (Loucks, 2000). This is achieved through a fine balance of social, environmental and economic aspects as depicted in Figure 1.3;
Rate of deterioration and leakage potential
Feedback
Ideal scenario
Asset Lifespan (years) Figure 1.2: Feedback mechanisms on infrastructure condition
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Figure 1.3: Sustainable water resources (Adapted from www.nationmaster.com)
Sustainability represents an optimal end state which is neither fixed nor constant but rather time and space relevant. Sustainable development therefore offers the direction needed to deliver on selected sustainability goals (Carvalho et. al., 2008). Closely related to sustainability is the concept of lifecycle management which has been affirmed as a precondition for sustainability (Haffejee and Brent, 2008) – what stands out is that lifecycle management is very much a systems approach as a working knowledge of the system is a prerequisite. This therefore calls for all aspects of water management to be dealt with in a holistic manner with the end in mind. It cannot be said that today’s local government is geared to perform these functions due to the constraint alluded to in previous sections. Until a business-like mode of operation is introduced in the sector, economic and environmental viability will remain a dream. Tools such as the sustainability index proposed by Carvalho et.al., (2008) can be used to guide policy decision to improve service delivery. Ncube and Taigbenu (2006) define what they term the institutional threshold that is dictated by sustainable development for WCDM/IWRM. Water institutions should be specific, adaptive and integrated, with a certain level of robustness and dynamism, and the ability to attract and retain exceptionally skilled personnel. In addition, vital backbones of information systems, asset management, and change management that will ensure that WCDM become a part of the institution that outlives individual are need. All these require a systems approach to review and map out the institutional roadmap and the essential inputs that will be required to arrive at the required destination. The current management mode which includes various committees and stages for making decisions is neither adaptive nor robust enough to be the proposed threshold. Expediency should rather be the norm in selecting the appropriate institution as opposed to the legislated preference for an internal arrangement for the water provision function. Petronius Arbiter, 210 B.C., is attributed with the quote “We trained hard but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn late in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.” National government must realise the need to build institutions that can achieve the desired sustainability goal without frequent restructuring and reorganising that yields little to no benefit.
Conclusion There is a need to serious reconsider the current local government structures and system and to build institutions that will achieve the noble goals enshrined in legislature. A system approach is proposed as an in-depth and rigorous process of coming up with and maintaining the most appropriate structures that meets the proposed institutional threshold. Concerted efforts need to be put in developing the critical human resource needed to drive these systems and must be of necessity be housed within these structures as opposed to outsourcing. Apprenticeships, maintenance teams etc need to be brought back to the municipal arena so that the business experts are housed internally. Funding criteria need to be reviewed to allow for better supervision and measurement of the correct targets as opposed to the use-it-or-lose it principle.
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WCDM should also be implemented within the broader framework of sustainable development and systems theory with careful emphasis on identifying key drivers that ensure its permanency and the adoption of sometimes ignored non-structural interventions such as the institutional setup. References De Carvalho, S.C.P., Carden, K.J. and Armitage, N.P. (2008). Application of a sustainability index for integrated urban water management in Southern African cities: Case study comparison – Maputo and Hermanus. Proc. of WISA Biennial Conference. Sun City, South Africa. Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), (2004). National Water Resource Strategy (NWRS): First Edition. September 2004. Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), (2008). Strategic overview of the Water Sector in South Africa. Booklet Version 3.1 Eldidy, N.A., (2008). Predicting Water Utility Efficiency and Artificial Intelligence. Proc. of the 72nd Annual Conference of the Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa, 72 - 80. Bloemfontein, South Africa Haffejee, M. and Brent A.C. (2008). Evaluation of an integrated asset life-cycle management (ALCM) model and assessment of practices in the water utility sector. Water SA, 34, 2, 285 – 290. Hoffman, J.J and du Plessis J.A. (2008). Water Demand Management: An economic viable option. Proc. of WISA Biennial Conference. Sun City, South Africa. Kieck, R.F. and Wagner, J.C. (2008). The art and science of creating sustainable water services institutions. Proc. of WISA Biennial Conference. Sun City, South Africa. Lawless, A. (2008). Numbers and needs in local government: addressing civil engineering – the critical profession for service delivery. Proc. of the 72nd Annual Conference of the Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa, 31 – 38. Bloemfontein, South Africa. Loucks, D.P., (2000). Sustainable water resources management, Water International, 25, 1, 3 – 10. Ncube, M. and Taigbenu, A.E. (2006). The institutional challenge in the implementation of Water Demand Management: A case of the City of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Proc of IASTED International Conference, Environmental Sound Technology in Water Resources Management, Gaborone, Botswana, Sept 2006. Pp 17 – 23. Pybus, P.J and Schoeman, G. (2008). An iconoclastic view of municipal service delivery. Proc. of WISA Biennial Conference. Sun City, South Africa. Mkandla, N., Van der Zaag, P., and Sibanda, P., (2005). Bulawayo water supplies: Sustainable alternatives for the next decade, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 30, 935–942. Mwendera, E.J., Hazelton, D., Nkhuwa, D., Robinson, P., Tjijenda, K., Chavula, G. (2003). Overcoming constraints to the implementation of water demand management in Southern Africa, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 28, 761 – 778. Water Research Commission (WRC), (2009). Situational Analysis of Water Services Provision in South Africa – establishing future strategies for consideration by municipalities. Progress report on Project K5/1812.
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