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Municipalities need to innovate to meet demands

File photo
File photo

The widespread protests for services sweeping across our country and the recent announcement by SA Local Government Association (Salga) that it would investigate costs of providing municipal services should be seen as warning bells.

This is because the demand for these municipal services is growing daily at an alarming rate, outstripping the supply across the country - particularly in the cities.

The real challenge to municipalities has been not only to maintain but to continue to extend these services to a growing population. This, municipalities must do in a context of intensified urbanisation, declining revenues, diminishing funding for infrastructure development and a weakening economy. The culture of non-payment for municipal services increases the strain on municipalities

Salga is said to be conducting a cost study on municipal services in general.

The outcomes of that study will influence whether its members continue to provide some free water to all.

Residents are entitled to receive the first 6000 litres of water monthly. The biggest five municipalities, namely the City of Johannesburg, City of Cape Town, City of Tshwane, Ekhurhuleni and eThekwini are already providing some free water to households costing billions of rand annually.

Some of the other services that municipalities provide, are sewage collection and disposal, refuse removal, electricity, municipal health services, municipal roads and storm water drainage, street lighting, municipal parks and recreation facilities.

Delivering these services is a key mandate of the South African government. This places immense responsibility on local government to ensure that every citizen receives basic services. But the challenge is that the more people receive these basic services, the more the demand grows. The latest General Household Survey conducted by Statics SA shows that many residents are benefiting from the provision of basic municipal services.

For instance, the percentage of households with access to improved sanitation - such as flush toilets or pit toilets with ventilation pipes - has increased consistently from 62.3% in 2002 to 79.5% last year.

The survey also revealed that about 13.2 million (85.9%) of households currently enjoy access to piped water as compared to 9.4 million (79.9%) in 2005.

There has been a consistent increase in the percentage of households that receive electricity from 77.1% in 2002 to 86% last year. The provision of these basic services to many households shows remarkable progress.

Although government continues to spend tens of billions of rand towards the development of social and economic infrastructure the pace of construction is not keeping up with the pace of growing demand.

The pressure of migrants moving into the country's cities from all over the continent is also taking its toll. Johannesburg continues to attract the highest number of these migrants coming to the city seeking opportunities.

According to Statistics South Africa, the country's capital expenditure rose from R224.8-billion in 2012-2013 to R255.1-billion in 2013-2014 - an increase of 13.5% in nominal terms.

The public sector accounts for the largest chunk of this capital expenditure.

National government's contribution stood at 55%, followed by municipalities at 21% and provincial government 12%.

But this is not enough and communities are getting increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of development.

These challenges call for municipalities to find innovative and alternative ways of dealing with the high demand for basic services. Load shedding by Eskom has provided municipalities with the opportunity to think outside the box.

As they struggle to put more residents on the grid they must think of ways in which this resource can be used and distributed more efficiently.

This also goes for other services like water. There is an opportunity for municipalities to educate residence about the importance of conserving these limited resources.

Stan Maphologela is director of communications group finance at the City of Johannesburg

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