Abstract
While significant knowledge appears to be available on developmental water services (a term for service provision, to meet developmental objectives, with an emphasis on poor communities, in which a range of factors other than purely technical factors are addressed), there appears to be insufficient uptake of this knowledge (meaning the acquisition, comprehension and application in context) by technical professionals and decision-makers responsible for service provision, as evidencedby persistent service delivery backlogs and poor sustainability. This investigation developed and documented an exploratory methodology based primarily on in-depth interviews and a literature review which enabled the collection of evidence and development of a ‘first pass’ typology of knowledge, context and individual competencies with respect to developmental water services. This paper addresses the aspects of knowledge and context. Individual competencies are addressed in thecompanion paper (Part 2). With respect to knowledge, the investigation found that while there is a lot of information readily available in the sectoron the provision of water services to meet developmental objectives, what appears to be weak or missing is information on how to apply this information in context. With respect to context, the investigation established a simple preliminary framework which described the combination of political and technical disciplines in a unified approach, and the translation of this into the bureaucracy. On the evidence of the in-depth interviews, the contextual aspects of developmental water services, described by the above framework – and, in particular, the workings of the bureaucracy – would appear to constitute the major challenge facing high-level technical professionals and decision-makers in the provision and sustainability of water services. More generally, the investigation established that for effective provision of water services within a developmental context, there is a close relationship between the three components of knowledge, context and individual competencies; andthat it is difficult to address any one of the three components without reference to the other two.
Highlights
Over the past decade or so in South Africa, there has been a fundamental change in the way in which services are provided, from an approach dominated by technical factors to one in which a range of factors other than purely technical factors are addressed
A suggested term for this new approach is ‘developmental water services’. This change has been acknowledged by the South African Water Research Commission (WRC) in its 2002 Knowledge Review, where it observed that ’..the sector is in transformation‘, pointing to a ’shift in paradigm‘ as the challenges of integrating technical factors with other factors such as business aspects become more established (WRC, 2002)
Proceeding from the initial definition of ‘developmental water services’ as ‘the provision of water services to meet developmental objectives, with an emphasis on poor communities, in which a range of factors other than purely technical factors are addressed’, a key finding of the investigation was the identification of a further major aspect of developmental water services as ‘a combination of political and technical disciplines in a unified approach, consisting of:
Summary
Over the past decade or so in South Africa, there has been a fundamental change in the way in which services are provided, from an approach dominated by technical factors to one in which a range of factors other than purely technical factors are addressed. Significant attention in recent years has been paid to the development of new organisational arrangements, policies, legislation and procedures for developmental water services This exploratory investigation, by contrast, turned the attention to the uptake of knowledge by individual practitioners at the higher levels within the new service provision paradigm. Proceeding from the initial definition of ‘developmental water services’ as ‘the provision of water services to meet developmental objectives, with an emphasis on poor communities, in which a range of factors other than purely technical factors are addressed’, a key finding of the investigation was the identification of a further major aspect of developmental water services as ‘a combination of political and technical disciplines in a unified approach, consisting of: Implementation of services on the ground carried out by technical professionals (in different fields such as engineering, health, housing, etc., often arranged institutionally into departments along those lines); Decisions, trade-offs and resource allocations (within limited resources, to meet developmental objectives) carried out by politicians; ...and the institutionalisation of this, or translation into the bureaucracy’.
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