Water is both a human right and a valuable commodity. Access to water for the rural poor is an international development concern that has been highlighted by the Millennium Development Goals adopted at the Millennium Summit in 2000 in Dublin, Ireland. South Africa's Free Basic Water policy is the government's response to assuring access to water for all - especially those who cannot pay. The policy, however, is required to work within an economic framework that promotes cost recovery and privatisation. The Free Basic Water Policy was officially implemented in July 2001. The policy was rolled out in most urban areas on or near this date. However, in rural areas it has proven much more difficult, and there are many areas that have not yet seen the implementation of Free Basic Water (FBW). This is partly due to varying financial, technical, political and logistical problems at the local and district municipality level. This research investigates the current situation in rural municipalities, looking specifically at FBW policy, institutional arrangements, operation and maintenance costs, cost per capita and affordability in relation to the Equitable Share allocations. Five case studies - compiled through interviews, document analyses, Participatory Rural Appraisal, and workshops provide a broad scale research base from which to analyse the current implementation of FBW in rural municipalities and ascertain whether this policy is affordable at this level. Water Service Authorities (WSA) are at varying levels of implementation, with few having a fully operational policy that is reaching rural areas. A costing exercise revealed that the service delivery price of water varies, but does follow a trend. From this trend a benchmark cost per capita of R5.84/month was determined. This price, although low, is not currently affordable in some municipalities due to insufficient government grants from National Treasury. These grants are fundamental to the sustainability of FBW and the situation must be resolved if FBW is to reach its target market - the poorest of the poor. The mixed success in the implementation of Free Basic Water in rural areas of South Africa should not be taken as indicative of future trends. As the local government transition to newly devolved powers and functions is completed, the capacity at this level to resolve the challenges is more likely. Subject to the continued strength of the South African economy, this policy could be a solution to the historical failure of service delivery to rural areas. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

The purpose of this dissertation was to identify factors that contribute to the sustainability of rural water supply facilities (WSFs). Twenty-four interviews were conducted: 16 from rural communities and 8 from water supply agencies. Key findings are that in order to achieve sustainability of WSFs, there is need to ensure that (1) there is an effective community organisation; (2) communities have the ability to operate and maintain WSFs; (3) communities are able to raise adequate user fees for purchasing spare parts; and (4) that there is a strong backup support at the district level to carry out major repairs. Major threats to the sustainability of WSFs include high poverty levels in communities, weak institutional framework and inability of communities to handle major breakdowns. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Work)

The purpose of this dissertation was to identify factors that contribute to the sustainability of rural water supply facilities (WSFs). Twenty-four interviews were conducted: 16 from rural communities and 8 from water supply agencies. Key findings are that in order to achieve sustainability of WSFs, there is need to ensure that (1) there is an effective community organisation; (2) communities have the ability to operate and maintain WSFs; (3) communities are able to raise adequate user fees for purchasing spare parts; and (4) that there is a strong backup support at the district level to carry out major repairs. Major threats to the sustainability of WSFs include high poverty levels in communities, weak institutional framework and inability of communities to handle major breakdowns. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Work)

Diversos estudos têm relacionado melhores condições de saneamento básico ao incremento nos índices de saúde da população. Investimentos em saneamento básico tendem a promover um benefício econômico, já que o custo para as intervenções necessárias é inferior à despesa com tratamento das enfermidades causadas pela falta de saneamento. Esta pesquisa visou caracterizar a problemática do abastecimento de água em pequenas comunidades urbanas e rurais no estado do Rio Grande do Sul, avaliando-se a vulnerabilidade dos sistemas de abastecimento e da população atingida por meio de critérios próprios voltados à situação de interesse. Definiu-se uma amostra com locais escolhidos por método estatístico e um índice de vulnerabilidade composto por quatro dimensões de análise, dez indicadores e cinco níveis de vulnerabilidade cada. Com isso, caracterizou-se a problemática com base nos dez indicadores propostos, analisaram-se estatisticamente os resultados do índice de vulnerabilidade com o cálculo do índice médio para o Estado e em termos de subpopulações, e estimou-se a proporção da população abastecida e sistemas considerados vulneráveis. Apresentaram-se, portanto, conclusões quanto ao método empregado e resultados encontrados, além de recomendações que podem ser aplicadas para mitigar as vulnerabilidades encontradas e no desenvolvimento de trabalhos futuros. Os resultados demonstraram que o nível de tratamento se mostrou um importante critério de análise de vulnerabilidade, havendo diferenças significativas nos resultados do índice para os sistemas sem tratamento e aqueles com tratamento considerado adequado. / According to several studies, there is an association between progresses in drinking water and sanitation to improvements in health indices. Investments in safe drinking water and sanitation may yield in an economic benefit, as the health-effect costs outweigh the costs of undertaking the required interventions. The objective of this research was to evaluate small community water supply systems in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, assessing the vulnerability of the systems and population that depends on them. The survey followed statistical sampling techniques to design the sample size and a water vulnerability index tool that included four dimensions, ten indicators and five vulnerability ratings was constructed. The condition was characterized by the ten proposed indicators, while statistical analysis of the vulnerability index was performed with mean estimates for the State and subpopulations. It was also estimated the proportion of the target population and water supply systems considered vulnerable. Conclusions were presented with respect to the method applied and the main results found in the survey. Recommendations were proposed in order to mitigate the vulnerabilities of the systems and protect public health. The results demonstrate that the level of treatment is a major vulnerability criteria, as significant differences in the index were related to systems that distribute water without treatment and those with an appropriate treatment technology.

Are South Africa's water service delivery policies and strategies equitable, accessible, affordable, efficient, effective and sustainable for Msunduzi low-income households? The primary objective of this study was to elicit the community experience of South Africa's water service delivery policies and strategies and link these experiences to a broader analysis of policy and strategy to locate water service delivery contraventions, inconsistencies and inadequacies. The secondary objective was to initiate community-based platforms for engagement with water-related issues and build capacity within local community task teams to initiate lobbying and advocacy strategies to support community-suggested and research-outcome reforms thereby returning popular control to the locus of communities. The study was conducted in KwaZulu-Natal, within the Msunduzi municipal jurisdiction, under the uMgungundlovu district municipality (DC22) in the period from October 2002-April 2003. Households in five low-income urban areas were included in the study: Imbali (units 1 and 2), Sobantu, Haniville and Thembalihle. The study employed a community action research design using non-probability sampling. Surveys, conducted by community researchers, were complemented by broad community engagement approaches, informal interviews with external stakeholders and the initiation of platforms for information sharing and fundamental debate. The study revealed two significant findings. The first finding found that South Africa's water service delivery policies, strategies and implementation mechanisms were inconsistent with the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry's sector goals of equity, affordability, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability. They contained serious scientific and social inadequacies, inequitably promoted economic considerations above social and environmental considerations; lacked regulation and monitoring systems to identify and address implementation contraventions; were not receptive to the socioeconomic situations of low-income households and should be fundamentally re-worked. Policies and strategies purported to ensure that the basic water service requirements of low-income households were met, essentially compounded socio-economic constraints and compromised human rights, justice and equity. The second finding was related to popular involvement and engagement. Community consultative processes for input into local and national policies and strategies were inadequate and often pseudoparticipatory; political platforms (local and national) for communities to engage and influence decision-makers were inadequate or lacking; and the community control, ownership and acceptance of the Msunduzi water service delivery institution and its mechanisms were low. Recommendations for the reform of policy, strategy and implementation of such reforms were advocated through the vehicle of reviews, evaluations and audits, to inform the necessary amendments, adjustments and intensification of local and national regulation and monitoring mechanisms. Lobbying and advocacy strategies, to support the implementation of reforms, were promoted through community-based approaches of popular engagement with water-related issues, information dissemination; community mobilisation and popular control of public processes. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

The provision of a basic water supply and sanitation service to the 12 million South Africans without an adequate water supply and the 21 million without basic sanitation is a mammoth task that is currently being undertaken by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. Billions of rands have been spent on, and committed to, water and sanitation projects that involve national, provincial and local spheres of government, as well as parastatals, non-government organisations and private developers. It is acknowledged that important successes have been achieved in the water and sanitation sector. However, despite the provisions provided in national and local legislation, internationally lauded policy directives, the numerous studies undertaken and recommendations made by institutions such as the Water Research Commission, problems have continued to emerge in the sustainable delivery of water and sanitation projects, particularly in the peri-urban and rural areas. It is clear that the installation of physical structures such as pipes, taps and ventilated improved pit latrines in these areas have created a sense of 'delivery' however, little thought seems to have gone into how these projects are to be sustained. International experience has shown that the concept of 'community ownership' is very important in providing sustainable water and sanitation services. The most important principles in achieving sustainability are community participation and community decision-making throughout both the development of the project as well as the further operation and maintenance of the system. International experience has also shown that financial contributions towards the scheme from the community (in cash, labour or materials), also assists in obtaining community ownership. Over the past decade emphasis in South Africa has shifted towards community participation and the empowerment of previously disadvantaged communities where communities play an active role in determining the level of service provided and the manner in which these services are delivered. However, current government policy advocates that water must be treated as an economic resource to achieve sustainability and this does not always lie comfortably with the policy of delivering free basic water. As a result of these two often-juxtaposed concepts, the delivery of sustainable water and sanitation services, a function performed by local government, is thus made more difficult. This study assesses the importance of delivering a potable water supply and adequate sanitation service to enhance the quality of lives of people. It also considers the key issues that contribute towards sustainable water and sanitation service delivery, with particular reference to the concept of 'community ownership'. The complex nature of the policy, legislative and institutional framework for water supply and sanitation is considered along with an analysis of the Msunduzi Municipality's water supply and sanitation policy and objectives. The study then focuses on the delivery of water and sanitation services to one such project, Edendale Unit RR (commonly known as Newtown), as an in-situ upgrade case study. A Provincial Housing Board funded project has, over the last five years, provided housing units, roads, stormwater drains, and water and sanitation infrastructure to this community. This initial research is undertaken with the intention of providing an evaluation of the installation of the water supply and sanitation service to the in-situ upgrade of Newtown. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

By the dawn of the twenty-first century the City of Atlanta was facing a crisis of water quantity and water quality. It was involved in two-decades worth of litigation with the states of Alabama and Florida over access to surface waters that originate within Georgia, a legal dispute that threatened to severely reduce the city’ ability to provide water to its growing metropolitan population. In addition, city officials were in the beginning stages of a four-billion dollar, court-ordered program of improvements to its wastewater infrastructure that was intended to reduce the amount of pollution that spewed into its local rivers and streams. This dissertation examines the origins of these water-related problems by exploring the challenges that Atlanta’s public officials, engineers, and activists faced in planning and implementing an effective environmental policy, with particular emphasis placed on the era of post-World War II metropolitan development. Specifically, it focuses on the city’s historical efforts to achieve the comprehensive management of the area’s water resources, the technological systems adopted and solutions proposed, and the political and social milieu that facilitated or hampered these endeavors. Comprehensive water resources management was a neglected and delayed policy approach that was undertaken in the City of Atlanta only after overt threats of federal intervention. This study argues that although the area’s mid-century regional planners advocated for intergovernmental cooperation in order to manage Atlanta’s limited water supplies, their recommendations were undermined by fragmented local governance, timid political leadership, and public indifference. It further suggests that Atlanta’s water supply managers, through increases in the scale and scope of their operations and a reluctance to increase customer rates, facilitated and encouraged greater water consumption, which, in turn, placed intense burdens on both the natural hydraulic cycle and the city’s wastewater facilities. Lastly, it argues the citizen activists as well as state and federal regulators have utilized the federal court system as a blunt planning instrument when Atlanta’s leaders displayed their seeming incapacity to handle the environmental strains of uncoordinated metropolitan development.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [212]-293).

Diversos estudos têm relacionado melhores condições de saneamento básico ao incremento nos índices de saúde da população. Investimentos em saneamento básico tendem a promover um benefício econômico, já que o custo para as intervenções necessárias é inferior à despesa com tratamento das enfermidades causadas pela falta de saneamento. Esta pesquisa visou caracterizar a problemática do abastecimento de água em pequenas comunidades urbanas e rurais no estado do Rio Grande do Sul, avaliando-se a vulnerabilidade dos sistemas de abastecimento e da população atingida por meio de critérios próprios voltados à situação de interesse. Definiu-se uma amostra com locais escolhidos por método estatístico e um índice de vulnerabilidade composto por quatro dimensões de análise, dez indicadores e cinco níveis de vulnerabilidade cada. Com isso, caracterizou-se a problemática com base nos dez indicadores propostos, analisaram-se estatisticamente os resultados do índice de vulnerabilidade com o cálculo do índice médio para o Estado e em termos de subpopulações, e estimou-se a proporção da população abastecida e sistemas considerados vulneráveis. Apresentaram-se, portanto, conclusões quanto ao método empregado e resultados encontrados, além de recomendações que podem ser aplicadas para mitigar as vulnerabilidades encontradas e no desenvolvimento de trabalhos futuros. Os resultados demonstraram que o nível de tratamento se mostrou um importante critério de análise de vulnerabilidade, havendo diferenças significativas nos resultados do índice para os sistemas sem tratamento e aqueles com tratamento considerado adequado. / According to several studies, there is an association between progresses in drinking water and sanitation to improvements in health indices. Investments in safe drinking water and sanitation may yield in an economic benefit, as the health-effect costs outweigh the costs of undertaking the required interventions. The objective of this research was to evaluate small community water supply systems in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, assessing the vulnerability of the systems and population that depends on them. The survey followed statistical sampling techniques to design the sample size and a water vulnerability index tool that included four dimensions, ten indicators and five vulnerability ratings was constructed. The condition was characterized by the ten proposed indicators, while statistical analysis of the vulnerability index was performed with mean estimates for the State and subpopulations. It was also estimated the proportion of the target population and water supply systems considered vulnerable. Conclusions were presented with respect to the method applied and the main results found in the survey. Recommendations were proposed in order to mitigate the vulnerabilities of the systems and protect public health. The results demonstrate that the level of treatment is a major vulnerability criteria, as significant differences in the index were related to systems that distribute water without treatment and those with an appropriate treatment technology.

Diversos estudos têm relacionado melhores condições de saneamento básico ao incremento nos índices de saúde da população. Investimentos em saneamento básico tendem a promover um benefício econômico, já que o custo para as intervenções necessárias é inferior à despesa com tratamento das enfermidades causadas pela falta de saneamento. Esta pesquisa visou caracterizar a problemática do abastecimento de água em pequenas comunidades urbanas e rurais no estado do Rio Grande do Sul, avaliando-se a vulnerabilidade dos sistemas de abastecimento e da população atingida por meio de critérios próprios voltados à situação de interesse. Definiu-se uma amostra com locais escolhidos por método estatístico e um índice de vulnerabilidade composto por quatro dimensões de análise, dez indicadores e cinco níveis de vulnerabilidade cada. Com isso, caracterizou-se a problemática com base nos dez indicadores propostos, analisaram-se estatisticamente os resultados do índice de vulnerabilidade com o cálculo do índice médio para o Estado e em termos de subpopulações, e estimou-se a proporção da população abastecida e sistemas considerados vulneráveis. Apresentaram-se, portanto, conclusões quanto ao método empregado e resultados encontrados, além de recomendações que podem ser aplicadas para mitigar as vulnerabilidades encontradas e no desenvolvimento de trabalhos futuros. Os resultados demonstraram que o nível de tratamento se mostrou um importante critério de análise de vulnerabilidade, havendo diferenças significativas nos resultados do índice para os sistemas sem tratamento e aqueles com tratamento considerado adequado. / According to several studies, there is an association between progresses in drinking water and sanitation to improvements in health indices. Investments in safe drinking water and sanitation may yield in an economic benefit, as the health-effect costs outweigh the costs of undertaking the required interventions. The objective of this research was to evaluate small community water supply systems in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, assessing the vulnerability of the systems and population that depends on them. The survey followed statistical sampling techniques to design the sample size and a water vulnerability index tool that included four dimensions, ten indicators and five vulnerability ratings was constructed. The condition was characterized by the ten proposed indicators, while statistical analysis of the vulnerability index was performed with mean estimates for the State and subpopulations. It was also estimated the proportion of the target population and water supply systems considered vulnerable. Conclusions were presented with respect to the method applied and the main results found in the survey. Recommendations were proposed in order to mitigate the vulnerabilities of the systems and protect public health. The results demonstrate that the level of treatment is a major vulnerability criteria, as significant differences in the index were related to systems that distribute water without treatment and those with an appropriate treatment technology.