Balancing Equity and Efficiency? Water Governance Reform in South Africa

Abstract

AbstractThis study focuses on the challenges that governments face in addressing water equity and efficiency. Specifically, it analyzes the implementation of new water governance in post-apartheid South Africa and the central and local governments’ responses to water reform challenges. Using secondary data collected from the digital database LexisNexis, we find that the South African government has made juridical, organizational, and institutional changes to achieve a progressive realization of the right to water and to increase the financial viability of water service. First, the central government has made juridical changes such as the establishment of the 1996 Constitution that recognizes the human right to water and the 1998 National Water Act that abolishes the concept of riparian rights. In addition, the government attempted to build an equitable share of fiscal burdens between the central and local governments under the objective of decentralization. Second, organizational changes have been made to de-politicize water entities as well as transform “non-payment culture” under public water provision which became prevalent as a political contestation over discriminatory rules and poor service provision to black areas during apartheid. For example, the city of Johannesburg has created Johannesburg Water company, a corporation unit that has been owned by the city government but operated under the private business law. This corporatizing process results in improved operational efficiency while posing theoretical and empirical risks to equity considerations and democratic governance. Third, new institutional approaches including free basic water, prepaid meter, and increasing block tariff have been implemented to meet a basic human need and to achieve partial cost recovery at the same time. The case of South Africa water reform indicates that achieving a human right to water is in tension with financially viable water services within a corporate structure.KeywordsWater governanceEfficiencyEquityWater reformRight to waterGovernment reformWater managementWater policy