ABSTRACT South Africa, like numerous other developing countries throughout the world, faces increasing demands for public services in urban areas (Rondinelli and Kasarda, 1993). South Africa’s access to basic services such as water has clearly become part of social security/ citizenship. The research report investigates and elucidates the role of privatisation in the basic service delivery context. It argues that the GEAR policy framework blocks the resources required to achieve social citizenship (Cock 2000). This gave rise to community struggles concerning prepaid water meters in Phiri, Soweto. These struggles are examined and competing discourses surrounding public versus private sector participation in basic service (water) provision are also explored. The argument in this research report is two-fold. First, it establishes a view of water as an economic good, with the democratic government reducing the municipal problems of delivery to economic markets or private corporations. Second, it examines the perspective that water is a human right issue contained in the Bill of Rights. These two counter-arguments perpetuate struggles in relation to access, affordability and supply of water. The research seeks to examine these opposing arguments and further explores the impacts these struggles have on future delivery and access of such ‘life need’ as water. This exposure is done through the collection of Secondary data and empirical evidence obtained using various qualitative data gathering techniques. Although the advantages of prepaid water meters are recognised, the dominant argument in this report is in line with Dependency Theory. This maintains that the socio-economic inequalities as well as the socio-environmental injustices widespread in the policies of privatisation exclude various sectors of the population from full access to essential necessities such as water. These injustices are rooted in the fact that water is treated as a commodity to be sold and not as a basic human right (Maema 2003). To deny water to people reduces their citizenship and therefore the achievement of full citizens’ rights for the community of Phiri has become one of the crucial barometers for the realisation of the depth and sustainability of South Africa’s democracy (Khunou 2000). The research findings obtained suggest that the government does realise its responsibility to provide basic water services. Nevertheless, it delegates this responsibility to private institutions; hence making it an individual responsibility to gain access to water at a cost. This form of attempt in South Africa gives a clear reflection of Adam Smith’s “commercial society” which is viii encompassed and endorsed by privatisation and the capitalist endeavours. However, this is in contrast with the principles enshrined in the constitution of the Republic of South Africa, which mandate the government to ensure the progressive realisation and maintenance of access to available basic services. The research report, however, suggests that some educational programmes need to be developed and promoted to inform and equip the public on how best to preserve water. This endeavour is gradually envisaged under the auspices of emerging corporatised utilities.

M.Sc. (Development Planning) thesis, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, 1999

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Conventionally, the question of Egyptian water security focused on state-centric transboundary hydropolitics within the larger context of the Nile basin. The presented research explores 'water security' beyond this 'state-centric epistemology', typically focusing on a singular scale of hydropolitical analysis. This dissertation examines the water (hydro) politics of transnational land-water investments (LWI) within Egypt and the larger context of the Nile river basin. Adopting a multi-site case study methodology, it critically examines the changing role of the state and the engagement of non-state actors in the silent appropriation of land-water resources through investments in farmlands abroad. The research methodology contextualizes how land acquisitions take several shapes and forms within Egypt (Old-New Lands and New Lands/Mega Projects), as well as in other Nile basin countries (e.g. Sudan). They also manifest land-water-food nexus interdependencies for both; profit and larger strategic objectives, through the formation of 'State-Capital alliances'. Deploying a case study of an international Emirati investor in Egypt, it shows how land-water investments are rooted in a larger socio-political project as part of the state's vision of horizontal expansion and land reclamation, to address its ecological-demographic narrative of crisis. The research also draws linkages between Egyptian water security and transnational investments in other Nile basin countries with a particular focus on the case of Sudan as part of its larger vision of the 'breadbasket of the Arab World'. However, while these State-Capital alliances are rooted in narratives of state modernization, security, and profit, they entail various tensions and trade-offs amongst different resources nexi and actors, thus masking larger questions of social justice and equity. These tensions often reflect the manufacture of abundance and translate into water grabs transcending multiple hydropolitical scales. The thesis argues that the changing role of the "entrepreneurial state" and the engagement of non-state actors in transnational land-water investments manifest a transition from the hydraulic mission towards water security mercantilism. I argue that "water security mercantilism" denotes water grabbing, which overrides the conventional understanding of the hydraulic mission (water control by the state); towards a broader understanding of the role of non-state actors and international investors in accessing water, thus creating their own private resources security nexus. Hence, drawing on development studies, hydropolitics, and political economy scholarship, this dissertation broadens out the analysis of Egyptian water security beyond singular-scale state-centric hydropolitical debates; towards a multi-level polycentric analysis of water security, central to which are the farmers, the investors, and the state itself. This implies that transnational land-water investments not only influence small farmers through the reproduction of scarcity on the local level, but also influence the hydraulic mission of the state on the national level, and the larger Nile basin transboundary hydropolitics.

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This study proposes a framework for measuring and explaining partnership formation and resilience. The motivation for this study is that we currently do not understand the precise mechanism by which partnerships form or how they stay together in the face of change. The framework draws on a design view of systems to argue that partnerships manage change through boundary spanning practices that operate on multiple levels of social reality. The literature suggests that there are many different types of boundary spanning practices. Some types foster social-technical innovations called "boundary objects" while others facilitate the progressive standardization of those practices through the comparison and selection of boundary objects by social actors who are themselves transformed by their adoption of these objects. The framework proposes a way to measure partnership capacity and social learning that corresponds to the orders of boundary spanning practices. It furthermore proposes three hypotheses, one concerned with partnership formation and two concerned with resilience. The first hypothesis states that partnerships form through a convergence of boundary spanning practices and a community of practice. Convergence depends on a host of factors, including the capacity of innovators and early adopters to leverage their early successes to build additional capital to further promote and eventually institutionalize their boundary spanning practices. The second hypothesis predicts that partnerships that demonstrate a pattern of alignment practices integrating operational and strategic concerns will tend to oscillate within a defined range of partnership functions or "states" (restricted resilience). The third hypothesis predicts that partnerships that inculcate a learning culture of institutional design practices will tend to persist under a theoretically limitless range of environmental demands (general resilience). To assess the framework, four case studies of water resource management partnerships in the Columbia River Basin were carried out. Data collection centered on interviews with boundary spanners, field trips, and secondary data. The results partially confirmed the first hypothesis, while evaluations of the resilience hypotheses were inconclusive. However, boundary spanning practices were catalogued according to the various types of partnership processes to demonstrate how the methodology can be used for cross-case comparisons and theory-building.

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2007 / This qualitative study investigated the impact of water problems on the development of Mhangweni community in Limpopo Province. The study also assessed the Greater Tzaneen Municipality strategies for addressing water problems in the community. Mhangweni village is within the Greater Tzaneen Municipality’s area of jurisdiction and is about 34 km east of Tzaneen. Questionnaires, observation and informal discussions from the sample were used to collect data. Eighty households from Mhangweni residents, the municipality officials and the community ward councilor were sampled. Water shortage is a serious challenge facing the households from this area. It is heart breaking as the results showed that the households of Mhangweni do not receive regular municipal water services. Households suffer economically in order to have access to water; as a result they are financially affected due to buying of water. The Greater Tzaneen Municipality must find a common ground and strategy to serve the long term interest of the Mhangweni households, that is, to provide them with regular water services. Development of a shared vision among all stakeholders has been seen as a prerequisite for the improvement in provision of services in the community. In conclusion the study suggests and recommends that the community households and the municipality must work together in order to satisfy needs of the community.

Thesis (MBA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2007 / The residents of Lebowakgomo in Lepelle-Nkumpi Municipality experience numerous inequalities in relation to water services provision. Some of the residents protest towards the inequalities through refusal to pay for the water services. The confrontational non paying residents field questions which the municipality can hardly answer. The problem of refusal to pay is of the magnitude that recently the municipality had to go house-to-house pleading with the inhabitants to pay if the municipality was to continue to provide water services. The specific objectives of this study were three-fold: (1) to determine water service quality using residents’ perceptions on water services in Lebowakgomo, (2) to determine residents’ expectations and perceptions on water services in Lebowakgomo, and (3) to determine the residents’ perceptions on water service quality and customer satisfaction in Lebowakgomo using age, gender, qualification and suburb. A questionnaire comprising five dimensions, namely, tangibles, reliability, assurance, empathy and responsiveness, was compiled to collect data from three suburbs of Lebowakgomo in Lepelle-Nkumpi Municipality. The original sample size was 120, with 9 becoming spoiled due to missing data. The independent variables comprised age, qualification, suburb and gender. Most of the data were analysed for kurtosis and skewness and with the exception of one variable, the rest of the data did not conform to parametric analysis criteria. The major findings of this study indicated overall negative perceptions of residents’ on four dimensions of empathy, reliability, responsiveness and assurance on water service quality which implied that the residents were dissatisfied with the service and called on management to use SERVQUAL as a valid model of assessment to identify areas requiring immediate attention for service improvement. On the other contra positive it was revealed that the municipality was doing well on the tangibles dimension. ix The study recommended use of SERVQUAL in measuring quality of other services within the constitutional competencies of the municipality and further research to investigate age contribution to service quality.

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