SUMMARY OUTCOMES OF THE PROVINCIAL WATER INDABA

1. SUMMARY OUTCOMES OF THE PROVINCIAL WATER INDABA Some emerging issues for the sector WSLG 19 November 2009

2. CONTEXT • The Minister has recently initiated an embarked on Provincial Water Indabas • The Provincial Water Indabas are meant to provide a platform for DWA-provincial government liaison and broadly allow for engagement with various provincial water sector stakeholders • To date five provincial indabas have been held: Eastern Cape, North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KZN. The remainder are scheduled between November and January 2010.

3. Summary Overview EMERGING THEMES, MESSAGES AND ISSUES FOR THE SECTOR

4. Issues requiring national attention • Climate change is a reality: • Limpopo, Eastern Cape and North West are experiencing drought. National government must work on drought relief programmes in the immediate, and develop climate change adaptation and mitigation measures • The state of Waste Water Treatment Works is a concern: • A concerted effort by national government to alleviate problems is urgently needed

5. Issues requiring national attention (2) • The system of local government must be reviewed • Revisit S78 legislation; powers and functions between DMs and LMs; authorisation of LMs; WSP arrangements; funding; etc • Review of MIG conditions: • Ensure that MIG effectively responds to all infrastructure challenges affecting LG (funding vs backlog, higher LOS, bulk connector infrastructure, etc)

6. Issues requiring national attention (3) • Urgent attention must be given to skills development: • Shortage of technical skills is cited as the main contributor to infrastructure asset management problems • Implement a systematic performance assessment of WSAs: • This should address timeous response to service delivery failures and identification of appropriate and targeted interventions

7. Issues requiring national attention (4) • Water Allocation Reform must be aligned to land reform: • Measures to support agrarian reform must clearly recognise and respond to this link • Institutional reform/realignment must be concluded: • There is a lot of uncertainty on proposals and status • There is scope to expand role of water boards to support local level infrastructure development, operation and maintenance; establish CMAs and conclude regulation model

8. Issues requiring national attention (5) • Increase regulation capacity in the DWA regional offices: • Measures to improve regulation will largely depend on the capacity of the regions to regulate • Research alternative mechanisms for infrastructure funding, especially for WS: • Noting the limited available funding from national fiscus, WSAs must be guided on alternative but sustainable funding sources

9. Issues requiring national attention (6) • Complete reconciliation studies to inform provincial socio-economic planning: • The outcomes and recommendations of reconciliation studies are seen as critical inputs into the evaluation of feasibility of provincial water-dependent development proposals • Enforce Blue Drop Certification: • Participation in this process must not remain voluntary given the importance of ensuring compliance to DWQM standards. All WSAs must participate

10. Highlights Provincial-LEVEL issues

11. Common Provincial Highlights • The provincial water sector plans must be reviewed to align with revised PGDS. These plans must be supported by provincial water infrastructure master plans that will address bulk water availability, infrastructure development and allocations to support various uses • Suitable provincial sector structures must be established to allow for increased oversight by provincial government on both political and administrative levels • Rainwater Harvesting programmes must be implemented • Strong water conservation awareness programmes must be implemented to raise the social and economic values of water and alert users about scarcity

12. Thank You