Challenges of local government's water and sanitation provision: a case study of Amajuba District Municipality
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Date
2017
Authors
Muyunda, Ruth Namalambo
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
The South African constitution introduced democratic development reforms that mandated local government certain responsibilities, among others being water and sanitation services. However, many challenges have been encountered by local governments and service providers and that hindered effective and sufficient provision of services, particularly in rural remote areas. The study was conducted against the backdrop of the white paper on local government requirement on provision of quality services to communities in a sustainable manner. Therefore an investigation on challenges local governments encounter in the water supply and sanitation provision, was conducted. The main focus of the study was on provision of water and sanitation by Amajuba District municipality to Ndlamlenze and Luthulunye communities within the eMandlangeni municipality.
The study utilised qualitative approach to interpret the challenges the Amajuba District municipality encountered in water supply and sanitation provision in the two communities under study and also to derive the perceptions and expectations of the communities in Municipal services. A case study design was used and interviews with open ended and closed questions, and observation and document analysis were utilised to collect the required data necessary for the research problem. The sampling approach employed in this study was purposeful sampling. Data was analysed manually and Microsoft Office Excel 2007 was used for drawing graphs. The research settings were the Amajuba District Municipality and two communities in ward 1 within the eMadlangeni Local Municipality. The Engineering Department, water sector section and two communities, Ndlamlenze and Luthulunye in ward 1 were sampled conveniently for data sources.
The conclusion of the research revealed that the municipality has done everything possible within their means, but challenges such as remoteness of the two communities, poor roads and terrain, vandalisms of infrastructure, drought and lack of sufficient funds, have affected the development expected in the two communities. The two communities mainly depend on streams and springs as sources of water for both humans and animals. Some households have built temporary, make-shift toilets, while other households still depend on the bush and thickets for relieving themselves.
The recommendations provided in the last chapter focus on suggesting the possible ways in which the Amajuba District Municipality may solve the challenges that hinder the required standard provision of water supply and sanitation provision to meet customer satisfaction. The recommendations include among others: building a municipality sub-station close to the two communities; making a recommendation to the Department of Rural development and land reforms to relocate the community members; visiting the communities regularly to educate and attend to their problems. The recommendations also include some of the measures that the community members should apply to meet their expectations. The recommendations include among others: taking responsibility of the services provided; appreciating the services provided; building stronger toilet structures and making decisions to relocate to better areas.
The researcher hopes that through this research, the district municipality will find even better ways of providing quality services in water and sanitation and that the two communities will likewise respond positively.
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Keywords
Municipality, Water supply, Sanitation, Local government, Community, Municipal government -- South Africa -- KwaZulu Natal, Dissertation (MGT (Governance and Political Transformation))--University Free State, 2017