South Africa’s new National Water Action Plan (NWAP), developed and being implemented by the National Water Crisis Committee (Watercom), sets out several strategic interventions over the short, medium and long term aimed at addressing the root causes of the country’s long-standing water supply challenges.
While longer-term reforms by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) have been under way over the past few years, the water crisis has reached breaking point, requiring more urgent, strategic and coordinated national interventions to arrest and reverse the significant decline seen over more than a decade.
“The NWAP is based on a thorough analysis of the root causes of the water crisis at municipal level and what needs to be done to address the challenges. It identifies actions that will significantly improve water service delivery in the short term, as well as actions, such as legislative and other reforms, that will take longer,” explains President Cyril Ramaphosa, who also chairs the Watercom.
The plan highlights the need to act on two fronts: working with municipalities to resolve the immediate crises, and changing the way water services are delivered.
According to the NWAP, one of the root causes of the crisis is an inappropriate delivery model for water services, characterised by the absence of ring-fencing, as water revenues are often used to fund other municipal functions, thereby reducing the resources available for water infrastructure maintenance, investment and the hiring of skilled staff.
