By Anish Abraham
IT IS necessary to balance basic needs and economic development needs, a South African Local Government Association (Salga) conference, held in Johannesburg from 21 to 23 February, has heard.
Governments have to look at the high costs of water and electricity provision, while also taking into consideration their mandates to provide such vital services to all people, according to the conference, titled "Poverty Reduction Through Better Regulation".
Establishing an independent regulator for water and electricity, a clear framework for tariffs, affordable regulation and aligning national legislation would lead to increased public accountability of such a body.
The conference concluded that society needed to understand how tariffs for services and utilities were calculated, while service providers and government departments had to do more to hear the views of ordinary citizens.
The Salga conference aimed "to give greater prominence to the importance of regulation in the decision-making arena, assisting those involved in service delivery to better understand existing regulatory parameters and offer tools for enhancing accountability".
Graham Richards, the executive director of governance and inter-governmental relations at Salga, said: "The primary duty of regulation is to protect the consumer. This entails putting systems in place to ensure that service delivery is achieved at acceptable standards and in an affordable and sustainable manner."
Bev Pretorius, Salga's director for water services, said it was in the interest of the consumer for Salga and the South African Municipal Workers Union to work together on such critical issues.
Helgard Muller, the chief director of the department of water affairs and forestry, said regulation should ensure the needs of the poor were met while quality of service increased.
Antonio Miranda, the director of international affairs for ASSEMAE, the Brazilian national association of municipal services and sanitation, put the challenges facing South Africa regarding efficient and affordable water provision, into an international perspective. "There are 1,2 billion people in the world without access to clean drinking water and about 2,5 billion who have no access to proper sanitation."
The United Nations has pledged to halve that by 2015.
Ompi Apahne, the chief director: electricity in the Department of Minerals and Energy, was more sombre, outlining the significant role played by electricity provision in municipal finances. He stressed the need to promote energy efficiency because of increased use of electricity, and education programmes with an increased focus towards public feedback.
"We are running out of generating capacity within the next few years," he said, adding that the department was looking into several renewable and non-renewable sources of generating electricity.
Representatives at the conference also discussed planned changes to municipal utilities. Following a cabinet decision in 2001, the regulation and distribution of electricity and water countrywide will be transferred to six Regional Electricity Distributors, or Reds, and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, respectively.
As part of these changes, 187 municipalities will transfer all their assets, liabilities, obligations, staff and rights to six newly created bodies in the electricity sector. Johannesburg was unique as it had separate utilities to supply water and electricity, said Dr Laila Smith, the director of research and evaluation in the City's contract management unit.
The six Reds are Johannesburg, Tshwane (Pretoria), Ekurhuleni (East Rand), eThekwini (Durban), Nelson Mandela Metro (Port Elizabeth) and Cape Town.
One of the issues still being discussed is the loss of income at municipalities, which now distribute electricity locally, as the compensation they will receive has not been finalised.
Smith said Johannesburg's contract management unit was helping to establish a National Advisory Committee within the next two or three months. It will ensure there is alignment between local government, government departments and other parties in the water and electricity sectors.
In closing, Dr David Hemson, the research director in the integrated urban and rural development research programme at the Human Sciences Research Council, listed some of the positives to come out of the conference.
These included raising the profile of regulation on the national agenda; enhancing the capacity of local governments to implement regulation; highlighting international best practice and learning from their mistakes; and highlighting the trials and tribulations to date regarding regulation in South Africa in the electricity and water sectors.
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