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1.              Introduction

1.1           Legal Framework

The Development Facilitation Act (Act No. 67 of 1995) states that an Integrated Development Plan (IDP) must be prepared to ensure proper co-ordination and integration of development.  This plan must make maximum use of existing resources and avoid duplication of funding for infrastructure development and services across disciplines.

A Water Services Development Plan (WSDP) proposes the projects and actions necessary to achieve efficient and sustainable provision of water and sanitation services for the citizens of a region or municipal areas within a region. WSDP’s are planning approaches that translate the water and sanitation Land Development Objectives (LDO) and IDP proposals into integrated water and sanitation plans at a detailed sectoral level.

There has been a restructuring of institutional arrangements for planning, implementation, operational and maintenance of water and sanitation services in the Republic of South Africa.  This has resulted in the creation of Water Services Authorities (WSA’s), Water Services Providers (WSP’s) and several other institutional bodies considered necessary to achieve coordinated water services delivery.

A WSA and is, in terms of the Water Act (Act No 36 of 1998), responsible for the provision of water and sanitation services in the area under its jurisdiction.

The Water Act states, inter alia, that:

“Every WSA has a duty to all customers or potential customers in it’s area of jurisdiction to progressively ensure efficient, affordable, economic and sustainable access to Water Services.” and, “Every WSA must prepare a draft Water Service Development Plan for its area of jurisdiction.”

The Water Services Act (Act 108 of 1997) requires that all Local Authorities prepare and then implement their own policies with respect to access to water services, setting of service levels and tariffs for water services.  Important factors guiding the formulation of WSDP’s include:

·         Policies and principles according to the National Water Act (Act 36 of 1998) and Water Services Act,

·         The availability of water resources in the region,

·         The need to take into account local characteristics such as topography and environmental factors,

·         The need to allocate resources equitably to consumers and potential consumers,

·         The need to regulate the provision of services in an equitable way,

·         Payment for services,

·         The need to conserve water resources,

·         Appropriate measures to deal with non-compliance with policies and regulations.

WSDP’s will enable consumers to understand what they can expect from the WSA. A WSDP will also allow the WSA to facilitate proper planning linked to the IDP and allow for regulation of usage.  The WSA will also be able to utilize the WSDP as a tool to gear in acquiring funds, and finally, assist in supplying data to DWAF regarding the availability and use of water services in the country.

 1.2           Evolution of the WSDP Process and the assessment thereof

The South African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) has issued guidelines on how WSDP’s are to be prepared in the form of a booklet entitled “Water Services Development Plan, Guidelines For Water Services Authorities, July 2001.” These Guidelines are specifically aimed at WSA’s that have no prior experience in preparing WSDP’s. Further to this, a Preparation Guide to prepare WSDP’s comprising of data tables was issued in January 2002. This Guide is also developed as a web based capturing tool.

The guidelines provide a mechanism for ensuring a holistic approach to water sector planning at the municipal level, based on building a knowledge base and using this base to make strategic decisions towards progressively achieving efficient, affordable, economical and sustainable water services as well as the need for integrated water resource management.

As WSA’s submit their WSDPs, must DWAF be able to assess the achievement of efficient, affordable, economical and sustainable water services. However, no detailed assessment guide existed to assess the compliance of the incoming WSDPs with the Water Act. This guide addresses this need.

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1.              The WSDP and its relation to other planning activities

DWAF produced a guide to assist with the preparation of WSDPs to assist WSAs to prepare a WSDP. The WSDP Preparation Guide provides detailed guidelines on how to prepare a WSDP. It includes a format for the WSDP consisting of data sheets, guiding notes, reporting requirements and suggestions for supporting tools. It focuses on the preparation of the different components of the WSDP and it proposes an overall structure and content to be addressed within a WSDP:

Incoming WSDP’s should include chapters comprising of information with regard to the inter-related components as illustrated in the adjacent figure.

The WSAs general understanding and commitment to the WSDP process can be assessed by checking their WSDP’s content page and its compliance with the number of inter-related components addressed within the WSDP.

 

1.1           Building a Knowledge Base which feeds back into the National Reference Framework

The data tables within the WSDP represent the current and future water services profile of DMs and LMs and comprise of information that needs to be fed back into the National Reference Framework (NRF).

The current water services profile with regard to the consumer and their existing water services levels, current infrastructure, projects, finances, institutional arrangements. etc., is also reflected within the NIS.

The data within the WSDP should represent summaries of the above information and needs to be compared with the NRF. Consultants assisting DMs and LMs in preparing their WSDP’s, should update the information according to the Standards and Norms set by DWAF’s NIS . This will enable the integration and alignment of WSDP and NRF information to ensure an overall accepted data platform

1.2           Assessing Linkages with existing Programmes on Water Services

The WSDP process will formulate certain water sector strategies with regard to water services delivery.

These strategies need to comply with existing programmes within DWAF and the Department of Local Government and Housing.

During the assessment stages, linkages with existing programmes must be tested for:

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1.              Purpose of the Assessment of WSDPS

1.1           Main Objectives

The purpose of this Assessment Guide is to provide a consistent and adequate procedure to assess, evaluate the gaps, sufficiency and completeness of the information presented in District Municipalities Water Services Development Plans.

The focus of this Guide is to assess the WHAT, HOW and WHO of Strategies and Information contained in the WSDP. Rules and processes from different levels of planning activities are driving the assessment procedures and are depicted in the diagram below:

 

These planning activities have a Top-Down and a Bottom-Up approach, which meet at the District / Area Planning level.


 

(a)                               Top-Down Activities:

(b)                               Bottom-Up Activities:

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1.              Assessment process for the WSDPS

1.1           Assessment Process Focus Areas

Planning is an incremental approach which means that not all data and information will immediately be available. Therefore, data tables within the WSDP are classified in three data categories to show the relative importance in relation to the detail of the assessment.

The three categories are as follows:

 Development Information (Information required by the Water Services Authority that should be included in their WSDP)

 Operational Information (existing information required by the Water Services Providers)

National Information System ( NIS ) (existing water services information within DWAF)

 

 

 

 

 

These three data categories are inter-related and illustrated in the adjacent diagram

As all data will not be immediately available, these three data categories have been further classified into crucial information. Crucial information is data that overlap between the three categories, in other words groups 1, 2, 3 and 5. Group 1 is NIS data coinciding with Development and Operational Information. Group 2 is Development and Operational Information that coincide. Group 3 is NIS data coinciding with Development Information and group 5 being Development Information on its own.

The completeness of the crucial information will indicate the gaps within the WSDP as well as the feasibility and viability of proposed targets.

The crucial information needs to be compared with the National Reference Framework to evaluate the completeness thereof.

 

The first WSDPs have been submitted during 2000 and none have been assessed. It is therefore very important to start to provide feedback on these and the following different levels of assessment have been agreed.  Three broad categories have been identified:

·         Registration;

·         Basic level of assessment (Part 1 and 2); and

·         Advanced levels of assessment (Part 3, 4 and 5).

This part need to be completed by the WSA, indicating the name, address including province, district municipality and local municipality names and contact person/s as well as contact details of the assessor.

o        Part 1: Administration and overall content

o        Part 2: First order assessment of content with the focus on Key Focus Areas.  A basic assessment with subjective assessment of quality of information.

o        Part 3: Detailed assessment of content with qualitative assessment of content and quality, linked to Key Focus Areas and applicability.

o        Parts 4: Strategic assessment of use of information (insight) and the application thereof (knowledge), linked to the driving principles of Key Focus Areas.

o        Part 5: Usability of the WSDP on terms of service delivery and ensuring an enabling environment and consequential aspects related to the management of the area of jurisdiction.

The relationship between the different parts of assessment and the contents of the WSDP per data category is illustrated below:

1.1.1     Pre-assessment: Registration

This part need to be completed by the WSA, indicating the name, address including province, district municipality and local municipality names and contact person/s. The contact details of the assessor need also be provided.  Once the registration is completed a letter addressed to the WSA will automatically be generated.  An example of the letter can be found in Appendix A.

1.1.2     Basic assessment

1.1.2.1       Part 1: Administration and overall content

Part 1 is an overall contextual assessment focusing on crucial information and comprises of two aspects that need to be addressed within this parts of assessment:

Information regarding the administration process of the WSDP is requested.  This includes information in connection with the WSDP and IDP drafting team, participation process, responsible officials and WSDP approval.

Basic information regarding the topics to be included within a WSDP is requested.  This assessment will give an overview with regard to the completeness of the WSDP.

1.1.2.2       Part 2: First order assessment of content with the focus on Key Focus Areas.  A basic assessment with subjective assessment of quality of information.

This part is a basic assessment of the crucial information included in the WSDP as well as the quality thereof.  This assessment is done per WSDP topic and linked to the Key Focus Areas.

The assessment is made to determine the completeness of the information (have the topics been addressed?) as well as the quality thereof (according to a scoring system discussed in paragraph 4.2).

An assessor’s report will be generated and forwarded to the relevant WSA after completion of the Part 1 and  2 (basic assessment)

1.1.3     Advanced assessment

1.1.3.1       Part 3: Detailed Advanced Assessment of content with qualitative assessment of content and quality, linked to Key Focus Areas and applicability.

During this part the completeness and validity of the crucial information in terms of facts and figures presented of the current situation as well as cross referencing between the WSDP and IDP e.g. water sector goals, demographic and socio-economic information, etc will be assessed.  The information within the WSDP will be verified between chapters of the WSDP. The information within the WSDP will be compared to the facts and figures presented in the Provincial Reference Framework. Detail on data contradictions and discrepancies will be listed within the evaluation report.

1.1.3.2       Part 4: Strategic assessment of use of information (insight) and the application thereof (knowledge), linked to the driving principles of KFA’s.

During this part the facts and logic of the strategies within the WSDP will be evaluated. All three data categories are included in this assessment. The WSA’s general capacity and understanding of the water services business will also be evaluated during this part.  The Provincial Reference Framework will also include strategic insight and interventions that also need to be compared with insight and interventions referred to in the WSDP.

1.1.3.3       Part 5: Usability of the WSDP in terms of service delivery and ensuring an enabling environment and consequential aspects related to the management of the area of jurisdiction.

This part will evaluate the usability of the WSDP through service delivery (in terms of project viability) and enabling environment (regulatory, standards and norms as well as institutional arrangements) and effective management (e.g. planning).  All three data categories and their inter relationship are applicable in this part.

An assessor’s report will be generated and forwarded to the relevant WSA after the assessment of Parts 3 to 5 (Detail assessment).

1.2           Key Focus Areas

The Key Focus Areas (KFA) is divided into six categories, each with additional sub categories. 

Categories A and B address the parts of service provision in terms of basic services and higher levels of services, each with is consumers’ profile and needs identified in terms of quality and quantity.

Water resource management is addressed in Category C.  This category looks at the provision of water services in an integrated way.  This includes appropriate choice and application of water sources, water conservation and demand management, resource protection and integrated water resource management.

Category D addresses Environmental Management in relation to water services provision, including the health, natural and social environments.

The effective management of the business of water provision is addressed in Category E.  Factors influencing management are included.  The planning of the water services, organizational and institutional structures and arrangements, general management of the water service, financial management and regulatory measures are addressed.

Transfers of water schemes are addressed in Category F.

1.2.1     Linking KFA’s with the Contents of the WSDP

The evaluation of the WSDP is done, by categorizing the questions asked in each topic according to a specific KFA.  These questions are asked and categorized per part identified (paragraph 4.1 above).

The evaluation is therefore done per KFA and not per topic.  A number of questions can be asked regarding a topic but each question relating to a topic does not necessary belong to the same KFA.

Questions are grouped together in relation to their KFA and the evaluation will be done to determine how adequately the KFA has been addressed.

1.3           Evaluation Scoring System

An “Evaluation Scoring System” needs to be put in place in order to determine the overall applicability of the information. It will also assist in the following activities:

The information will be measured according to the following levels:

A) – Poor (0)

B) – Fair (1

C) – Acceptable (2)

The assessment is guided by the use of an electronic assessment (E-Tool) upon which the assessor needs to indicate whether the WSDP comply with the Guidelines set by DWAF. More details of this E-tool are discussed in Chapter 2.

The E-tool includes the automatic generation of a letter and evaluation reports that need to be send to the applicable WSA. The reports also need to include the outcomes of the data validation checks against the NRF as part of the levels 3 and 4 assessment.

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1.              Detail PROFILE of the ASSESSOR

The level of expertise and knowledge required to assess the WSDP, will differ from level to level. It is proposed the assessment must be conducted by the following categories of experienced people:

o        Senior Engineer / Planner who understands:

§         the WSDP Process quite extensively

§         the Water Services Business

§         the National Reference Framework

§         the Study area

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1.              The assessment process using the assessment tool

The assessment tool allows for the following:

1.1           Home page

The home page of the tool is a summary of WSDP’s received per province.  This is an interactive map and can be used to access WSDP information regarding a specific province or to create a new assessment.

The options to create a new assessment, to edit an existing assessment, to view an existing assessment or to view the reports can be exercised from here.

1.2           New assessment

To choose a new assessment, click on new assessment.  A new registration form is presented. The province, district municipality, local municipality and year of the WSDP to be assessed must be provided. Details regarding the WSDP consultant and date of WSDP submitted and date assessed as well as assessor details, must be provided.

This must then be saved to continue with the assessment.  A password must be created for the assessment that is saved to continue with the assessment.

Questions relating to Part 1 of the basic assessment and to administration is presented as the next screen as the first assessment. A question can be selected by clicking on it and a second screen indicating the possible answers will then be presented. Part 1 only has yes or no answers, part 2 has yes and no questions as well as question for further qualification, related to the evaluation scoring system in paragraph 4.3.  Part 3 to 5 only have questions relating to the evaluation scoring system.

A topic can be assessed through all five parts (basic and advanced assessments) or all topics can be assessed on one part first. For example service level profile (topic) can be assessed from part 1 to 5 or it can be decided to assess all the topics on part 1.

Reports can be generated from this new assessment by choosing reports on the screen. An Assessment Report can be generated per part identified or for the whole assessment. The WSDP assessment summary report give a summary of the whole assessment.

The main menu can again be accessed from the new registration to choose the appropriate section.

1.3           Edit assessment

To choose an assessment to be edited a specific assessment can be described from the provincial, district and local municipality bars, or a province can be chosen and the assessments be listed.

The assessment can then be done according to the process described for new assessments.

In the edit assessment function, the assessor can choose to go back to the main menu or to another assessment to edit.  To enter each assessment it will be necessary to know the password for each assessment.

1.4           View assessment

An assessment can be viewed by choosing the view assessment option from the main menu.  It is not necessary to give a password since the purpose is that a person can view the assessment and not make any changes to it.  The process followed to view an assessment is the same as for editing the assessment.

1.5           Reporting

There is a choice between global reports, summary reports and individual assessment reports.

o        Choose date of assessments and preview national reports.

o        Preview national report

o        Select province

o        Choose appropriate part

o        Proceed to WSDP selection

o        Choose province from map or bars

o        Choose specific WSDP

o        Report will be generated automatically

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