Presentation to the Water Portfolio Committee, Focus: Regulation August 13 th , 2008

1. Presentation to the Water Portfolio Committee, Focus: Regulation August 13th, 2008

2. Challenges to current regulation model • WSA-WSP regulatory framework very skills intensive approach • Skills shortage in the sector means the WSA/WSP functions are often not separated out • WSAs lack political will to separate out the WSP • With 156 WSAs, most operating at a very weak level, the quality of data provided to the national regulator is often unreliable • National regulator cannot be effective unless it has credible information to work with

3. Challenges (continued) • Current top-down, supply driven approach has displaced Village Water Committees • Village Water Committees presented a demand driven, accountable and sustainable approach to delivery that created jobs, involved people and maintained services. • VCSs sidelined with current municipal approach to service delivery

4. Consequences: Neglect of assessing impact • Weak public accountability • Poor public disclosure of documentation regarding municipal water services • Weak public involvement/consultation regarding the formulation of WSDPs • Current approach focuses on outputs rather than outcomes • Need to deepen democracy to address these constraints

5. Alternatives • Strengthen the oversight capacity at local level through civil society • Public education critical starting point to enabling the public to play a monitoring role • Support existing initiatives, such as ‘Citizens Voice’, CSO regulation reference group, eThekwini’s Standing Groups…

6. Objectives of ‘Raising Citizens’ Voice’ • Improvement in how services are delivered • Short-term objective: educate councilors, citizens, CSOs about water services and how to engage with council • Medium-term objective: facilitate citizens to play a monitoring role • Long-term objective: civil society engages council at the strategic level to influence policy

7. Achievements from Cape Town • Strong sense of people being empowered through this process • Numerous households have had service delivery problems resolved (especially in billing area) • Councillors in CT now better able to play an oversight role because they receive more and better information from their constituencies • Water Service Authority capacity to monitor provision has been enhanced • Pilot has become sustainable as it has been adopted by the City of Cape Town as an ongoing programme- • CT now has a staff of 13 people running community training and user platforms • Citizens Voice being replicated in eThekwini, Ekhuruleni and Pietermaritzburg

8. Enforcement Challenges • National level capacity issue • Constitutional issue of interdependent spheres • Poor interdepartmental coordination (DPLG) • Issue of recourse at the local level • How to strengthen local level civic support to national enforcement?

9. Recommendations • Need a regulatory model that is interactive on the ground so that the people can be the ‘eyes and ears’ of the regulator • Parliamentary Water Portfolio Committee should work in partnership with the National CSO regulation reference group to strengthen enforcement and recourse mechanisms 3. All Water Boards must have, as mandatory, a CSO representative that is nominated by the NWAC 4. Village Water Committees be strengthened and promoted to address service delivery challenges