Browsing by Author "Sambo, Doctor Calvin."

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Assessment of the performance of small-scale water infrastructure (SWI) for multiple uses in Nebo Plateau, Sekhukhune District, South Africa.
(2015) Sambo, Doctor Calvin.; Senzanje, Aidan.
South Africa is ranked the 30th driest country in the world and water is regarded as a scarce resource in the country. Limited availability of good quality water has resulted in urban areas receiving more water at the expense of rural areas. This is due to the fact that urban areas have a more reliable and well-maintained water infrastructure, while rural communities use unreliable and dysfunctional small-scale water infrastructure (SWI). Enhancing the performance of SWI (which are technical hardware used by rural communities to supply water for their day-to-day activities such as domestic, irrigation and rural development) used by the rural communities can enhance their rural livelihoods. The SWIs are designed and operated either as single use systems (SUS) that cater for only one water-use or multiple water systems (MUS) that cater for more than one water-use. These SWI are usually dysfunctional due to a number of reasons. Investment into SWI development, operation and maintenance (O&M), rehabilitation and modernization is limited by the lack of knowledge of the types of SWI in a given area and their functional status. This study sought to assess the performance of SWI in Nebo Plateau, Limpopo Province, South Africa by (a) identifying their types, distribution, ownership, water-use and status using a survey tool administered to the rural communities, (b) assessing their condition using modified technical and risk of failure evaluation tool, (c) investigating their causes of failure using a qualitative research approach and network analysis, and then (d) propose best management practices (BMPs) that are specific to the study area. The study found 202 SWI, which comprised of the following: unequipped boreholes (59%), equipped boreholes (hand pumps (10%), electric-driven pumps (6%), diesel-driven pumps (1%) and windmills (4%)) and small reservoirs (11%). The overall water uses were 65% SUS, 22% MUS and 13% other. The government owned 54% of the SWI, communities owned 22%, private sector owned 11%, and schools owned 2%. The government was responsible for the maintenance of 49% of the SWI. It was found that 71% of the identified SWI were nonfunctional It was found that windmills had minor defects and met rural community needs above satisfactory level. On the other hand, small reservoirs and hand pumps required major maintenance and benefited the rural communities below the minimum level. The major causes of failure were found to be lack of proper operation and maintenance (O & M), lack of O & M strategies, inadequate funds, no monitoring strategies, lack of technical skills at municipality and community level, and lack of strong leadership from the policy regulating institutions, Water Service Authority, water service provider and rural communities. It was proposed that for improved water supply to the rural communities of Nebo Plateau, there was a need to decentralize the current District municipality water service providers (WSP), establish Village Water Committees (VWC) in the rural communities, link policy with technology used, consider the effects of environment on technology, ensure availability of spare parts locally, provide technical training for both WSP and rural communities, and allocate funds for operation and management of the SWI. The study concludes that there are different SWI used by the rural communities in the study area and operated as SUS and MUS. The rural communities used water mainly for domestic and irrigation of back yard gardens. Water from small reservoirs was mainly used for livestock watering. The government owned most of the SWI and were also responsible for their maintenance. Most SWI assessed during this study were non-functional thus depriving rural communities of improved standards of living. The factors that caused the poor performance of SWI were interdependent and resulted mainly from the lack of strong institutional capabilities. The proposed BMPs were suitable for the rural communities of Nebo Plateau. It is, therefore, recommended that stakeholders involved in SWI management use the information on the status of SWI presented in this document to address areas with poor performing SWI and adopt or apply the proposed BMPs to improve their performance.
Free basic water services standards as indicators to assess inequalities in sustainable access to improved water services.
(2020) Sambo, Doctor Calvin.; Senzanje, Aidan.; Mutanga, Onisimo.
Sustainable access to improved water services is essential to sustain human life and a fundamental human right. Water is used by rural communities for activities that improve their health, wellbeing and livelihoods. As a result, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) aim to attain universal access to improved water services provided by Improved Water Sources (IWS). IWS include standpipes in dwellings, communal standpipes and protected dug wells. Aligned to the SDG, the South African government conceived and effected the Free Basic Water Services (FBWS) policy to coordinate efforts to attain universal access to improved water services. However, there have been challenges in implementation of the FBWS policy resulting in a vast proportion of the rural communities without sustainable access to improved water services. The challenges vary from issues related to institutional capacities, accountability and monitoring. A substantial part of the challenge is the lack of reliable data to inform decision-makers involved in the planning and management of improved water services in the rural communities. The challenge is worsened by the indicator used to monitor water access as it only considers the proportion of the population provided with an IWS. This indicator does not track the sustainability aspects of the level of water services provided by IWS over their useful life. The research sought to address the gaps that exists with regards to making available the information required to inform decision-makers involved in the planning and management of improved water services, and the use of indictors to measure sustainability aspects of water services provided. The aim of the research was to assess inequalities in access to improved water services using a set of indicators derived from the FBWS standards, and investigate and analyse the complex interactions of the factors that influence access to improved water services in Makhudutamaga Local Municipality (MLM), Limpopo Province, South Africa. Stratified random sampling was employed to determine representative samples of the settlements (39) and households (396) in the study area. Survey questionnaires were administrated to collect qualitative data on households’ satisfaction with FBWS policy and water services provided as well as to collect qualitative and quantitative data on the level of water services provided based on distance, quantity, reliability, flow rate, water quality, and cost. Transect walks were employed to collect supporting information to enhance an understanding of the local context. Furthermore, key informant interviews combine with complex systems approach (e.g. network) were employed to collect qualitative data and analyse the complex interactions of factors that influenced sustainable access to improved water services. The results indicated that between 69.7% - 95.0% of households were satisfied with aspects of the FBWS standards. When using the standards to assess households’ satisfaction with improved water services provided, most of the households were satisfied with distance (62.0%), quantity (61.2%), flow rate (52.7%), and water quality (54.8%), but unsatisfied with the reliability (56.3%) and cost of buying water (58.0%). An assessment of the level of water services provided indicated that aspects (e.g. reliability and cost) of the improved water services provided did not comply with the FBWS standards. The results also indicated that there were statistical differences in access to improved water services across the 4 water schemes for distance [H(3) = 61.33, p = 0.00], quality [H(3) = 72.83, p = 0.00, flow rate [H(3) = 20.12, p = 0.00], and quality [H(3) = 17.21, p = 0.00] no difference for reliability [H(3) = 1.37, p = 0.712]. The majority of households (78.5%) could not afford the cost of buying water. An investigation of the factors that influence sustainable access to improved water services found that limited budget, limited/no water supply and improper operation and maintenance (O&M) were critical factors that influenced sustainable access to improved water services. Therefore, the proposed targeted interventions included increased budget, improved institutional capacity and improved monitoring. It was concluded that there are inequalities in sustainable access to improved water services provided based on FBWS standards. The inequalities are as a result of the complex interactions of categories of factors that influence sustainable access to water services. This study provides an informational advantage in understanding why the situation is as it is on the ground to contribute to evidence-based strategic planning and management of improved water services to ensuring sustained water access in rural municipalities. It is a recommendation of this study for the proposed targeted interventions to be piloted and adopted if found to be suitable to address identified challenges in the study area. The proposed interventions include but not limited to a review of the funding model to respond to the situation on the ground-based on monitoring information, and develop and implement a reasonable participatory water rationing strategy.