Abstract
In recent years the local governments in South Africa have faced numerous public protests with regard to service delivery and particularly the provision of basic services such as water and sanitation. In response, South Africa has introduced benchmarking systems (Blue Drop, Green Drop) to improve the quality of potable water and sanitation services. These systems have seen some success; however, the efficiency with which these water services are provided is yet to be assessed. This study uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the efficiency with which several South African water service authorities (WSAs), including both metropolitan and local municipalities, provide water services to the public in both urban and rural areas.
Highlights
The national government in South Africa has experienced a large degree of negative feedback with respect to the ability of its municipal departments and local governments to provide basic services to the public
These initiatives have seen success in both buy-in from local government and municipalities (Department of Water Affairs, 2011), as well as an improvement in the quality of the product and service provided (Department of Water Affairs, 2012), country wide. These initiatives have seen success in ensuring that the water delivered to the public by water services authorities (WSAs) is of an increasingly high standard, they fail to assess the efficiency with which this is achieved. This is an important factor to consider when assessing the overall performance of the WSAs as this will indicate whether the best use of the available resources is achieved
An input orientation implies that the outputs of the municipalities are considered to be fixed and the most efficient municipalities will achieve the desired level of output using lowest quantity of inputs. This is the appropriate orientation for an efficiency evaluation of water service provision as the outputs of the process are fixed and the goal is to optimise the use of inputs to achieve the desired level of output
Summary
The national government in South Africa has experienced a large degree of negative feedback with respect to the ability of its municipal departments and local governments to provide basic services (such as water and sanitation) to the public. The primary focus of the efforts has been placed on the development of two benchmarking initiatives, namely the Blue Drop and Green Drop assessments These initiatives have seen success in both buy-in from local government and municipalities (Department of Water Affairs, 2011), as well as an improvement in the quality of the product (potable water) and service provided (Department of Water Affairs, 2012), country wide. These initiatives have seen success in ensuring that the water delivered to the public by water services authorities (WSAs) is of an increasingly high standard, they fail to assess the efficiency with which this is achieved. This is an important factor to consider when assessing the overall performance of the WSAs as this will indicate whether the best use of the available resources is achieved
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