Assessment of the performance of small-scale water infrastructure (SWI) for multiple uses in Nebo Plateau, Sekhukhune District, South Africa.
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Date
2015
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Abstract
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.
Description
M. Sc. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2015.
Keywords
Water-supply, Rural--Limpopo., Municipal water supply--Limpopo., Reservoirs--Limpopo., Windmills--Limpopo., Theses -- Agricultural engineering.