Letter: We decided that there would be no free lunch

Former Dolphin Coast councillor Ian Coates writes:

Responding further to the various letters recently published in the Courier re the iLembe water crisis and the Siza Water concession, former councillors Thompson, Dawood and myself invited respondent and water engineer Osborne Gwamanda of Mandeni to further explain and expand on our observations covering the past 23 years.

That letter has raised a much wider range of comment that has now expanded, in The North Coast Courier, to the “Water and sanitation crisis in iLembe”. Sadly this is not merely an “iLembe issue”.

The entire country is now beset by water and sanitation delivery shortfalls, to the extent that there are daily horror stories of sewage flowing into the streets, rivers and sea.

Most reports focus on a lack of adequate maintenance, coupled with inadequate capital spending on upkeep and renewal of old and broken infrastructure.

Another fact is the rapid urban expansion of townships that all require installation of proper extended water and sanitation services.

Often these services are under-funded or poorly engineered and poorly installed and then under-maintained.

That is either because of a lack of experienced operational staff or lack of adequate funding (or some might say disinterested or incompetent officials and councils).

Unaccounted-for water losses: We (Dolphin Coast Transitional Local Council) identified water loss and leaks as the primary problem, caused by ancient and leaking pipes, improper water meter connections and a small maintenance team, plus a very low budget.

Our water losses then, in 1994, were well above the 35% water-alarm level! The international benchmark is less than 10% loss.

Our call for help resulted in Umgeni Water stepping in until 1998, by which time we had the support and assistance of the Development Bank of South Africa and the Department of Water Affairs to proceed through the concession tender process.

This new concession and public-private partnership arrangement was sanctioned and supported by the ANC government.

We assembled a team of engineers, lawyers and auditors that led to the selection and award of the 30-year Siza Water concession to Société d’Augmanagement des Urbane et Rurales (SAUR).

One key proviso was “user pays”, ie there is no free lunch.

Potable water costs at least R1 per kilolitre to produce and the treatment of wastewater often rises to some R5/Kl.

The tariffs incorporated an element of cross-subsidisation to offset those costs and to complement “equitable share” inputs from National Treasury to cover bulk service deliveries to areas with standpipe services (and where service fees were deemed uncollectable).

The provision of basic “free” water (of initially 6 Kl/household/ month) was accommodated in the tariff structure.

That concession system has worked and has grown successfully in the southern region of KwaDukuza, while Stanger retained its own controls until the water and sanitation service was transferred to iLembe district municipality in 2000.

Considering that the Siza concession has performed well for rapidly expanding Dolphin Coast area, we have merely tried to draw attention to a national government approved process that helped us to overcome service delivery problems that existed 30 years ago and now seem to have become a common ailment countrywide.

The solution and roadmap to success is already there!

It simply requires that the district municipalities open their minds and consider borrowing from that successful, learned experience, to introduce and follow a similar shared-partnership approach for the benefit of residents.

I trust that this explanation will help those now in control at iLembe and elsewhere reach a better understanding of how the concession came about and the immense value rendered into the successful development of the Dolphin Coast area.

Hopefully we can end up with an amalgamated service that caters to all in the iLembe district.