Urban Municipalities (Bothaville/Kgotsong & Wesselsbron/Monyakeng).

The Urban Municipalities are the retail water service provider and Sedibeng Water is the bulk water service provider. The allocation of the responsibilities of the Water Services Authority (WSA) to Urban Municipality, must be investigated and clarified. The proportion of the Equitable Share Revenue depends on this specific arrangement and definition of “basic services.

The bulk water is pumped from the Vaal river and treated by Sedibeng at their treatment
plant at Balkfontein.

The water quality complies with the SABS standard according the Water Service Development.

The water infrastructure situation in the urban area can be summarised, View Summary:

Metering and Billing and Water supply financing

• Consumer with metered water connection are presently billed on a monthly basis.
• Cost recovery range from 7 to 32% and is not sufficient to account for the
  operational cost.
• The sustainability of service delivery are therefore serious thread.
• Internal funding for new development and capital projects are virtually
  non-existent and the council exclusively depends on external funding.
• Upgrading and maintenance of existing facilities are hindered due to the function
  constraints.

Water Supply 

The principles adopted by the White Paper on Water Supply and Sanitation Policy assume a context of universal human right and the equality of all persons regardless of race, gender, creed and culture. 

The policy of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry in full support of the objectives and target of the Government’s Reconstruction and Development Programme, is to ensure that all inhabitants of the area have access to basic water supply within seven years or less. 

Given that they are chosen to be the minimum needed to ensure heath, the levels of service presented below should be seen as minimum standards to be applied in publicly funded schemes unless a relaxation has been specifically approved. 

This does not mean that higher standards cannot be applied. However, there is a direct correlation between the standard of service and the cost, both in terms of initial capital and operation and maintenance. Where higher standards of services are to be provided, the cost will not normally be supported by programmes of the Department. 

Details of the relevant policy are provided below.

Basic water supply is defined as: 

Cartage: The maximum distance which a person should have to cart water to their dwelling is 200 m. In steep terrain this distance may have to be reduced to the account of the extra effort required to cart water up steep slopes. 

Assurance of supply: the supply should provide water security for the community. Two factors are important here. 

First, scheme for domestic water supply should ensure the availability of “raw” water for 98% of the time.

Second, the operation and maintenance of the system must be effective. The aim should be to have no more than one week’s interruption in supply per year. 

The policy of the Council, in full support of objectives and targets of the Government Reconstruction and Development Programme, is to ensure that all inhabitants of the area have access to supply. 

The following levels of services are proposed for the area.