Durban - The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on Monday issued a damning report on the state of service delivery of clean water by municipalities and water service authorities in KZN.
The inquiry was conducted in response to the ongoing water crisis in KZN where many communities have been protesting and calling for action by the Commission’s provincial office, which since 2020, received more than 600 complaints regarding access to water.
The commission has given governance entities 12 months to implement its recommendations, failing which further steps will be taken, including litigation by the SAHRC in the Constitutional Court.
The commission found that the complaints amounted to a prima facie violation of the basic human right to have access to sufficient clean water, and given the far-reaching impact of these challenges on the affected communities, there was a need for strategic intervention to find short- medium- and long-term solutions.
These are some of the SAHRC recommendations:
• The implementation of appropriate customer care divisions with a dedicated customer services team;
• Implementing local accountability mechanisms with communities, such as sign-off on water delivery by tankers, and filling of Jojo tanks, managed by local ward councillors;
• Instituting call-centre mechanisms to receive and refer complaints, with appropriate standard operating procedures to ensure the maintenance of a register of complaints, maximum (six-hour) turn-around time to restore water service delivery and monitoring of resolution of complaints;
• To be mindful of and give effect to stakeholders’ constitutional rights to just administrative action (Constitution, section 33(1)), and their right to written reasons in instances where their rights have been adversely affected by administrative action (Constitution section 33(2));
• Undertaking a cost-effectiveness study to consider buying tankers as opposed to outsourcing this service;
• Moving towards implementing permanent solutions to water service provision, utilising tankers only in instances of emergency; and
• Prioritising and addressing long-standing backlogs in infrastructure maintenance, and fast-track the implementation of the national water and sanitation master plan.