[DEBATE] : From Soweto water victory to Durban?

[Patrick Bond]

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4399453
The Mercury
Eye on Civil Society column

Partial victories for civil society

May 13, 2008 Edition 1

Patrick Bond and Orlean Naidoo

Last July, we wrote an Eye on Civil Society article, "Water policies hit 
the poor of Durban", that now deserves a partial retraction.

Only partial because on the one hand, Mercury journalist Tony Carnie's 
column last week warned of municipal crony capitalism: "Many ratepayers 
have been pillaged by the new rate randage determination, while most 
businesses and industries quietly count their blessings."

On the other hand, there are two processes under way which show civil 
society can cajole the state into sensible water services delivery.

First is the historic April 30 judgment in the Johannesburg High Court 
outlawing pre-paid water meters and mandating 50 litres for everyone 
free each day, as a matter of constitutional rights.

Behind the case were five Soweto residents, the national Campaign 
Against Water Privatisation, the Wits University Centre for Applied 
Legal Studies and advocate Wim Trengove. They persuaded Judge Moroa 
Tsoka to finally give teeth to the Bill of Rights water clause.

An earlier judgment guaranteeing emergency services - the Grootboom case 
of September 2000 - was vague and hence useless for citizens' rights.

Second, local government is bending under citizen movements' pressure.

In the Chatsworth neighbourhoods of Bayview, Crossmoor and Westcliff, 
for example, water is now flowing where once it was restricted.

The reason is a 10-year mobilisation by the Flatdwellers' Association, 
initially supported by the Durban Concerned Citizens' Forum organised by 
Prof Fatima Meer.


Bore fruit

Strategies and tactics in the water wars ranged from street protests and 
widespread illegal reconnections to intense negotiations with state 
officials.

These engagements bore fruit last year, when deputy city manager Derek 
Naidoo agreed to a moratorium on evictions and services disconnections.

The city also began rehabilitating leaky plumbing and faulty electrical 
wiring throughout the flats. Additional refurbishment and upgrading of 
infrastructure in these three neighbourhoods is under way, budgeted for 
at least R38 million.

Chatsworth activists have won some battles but face others because after 
upgrading the city will install built-in restrictors on consumption.

Likewise, Johannesburg Water had imposed pre-paid water meters on 
Soweto, and not on the northern suburbs.

Judge Tsoka declared this racist: "I am unable to understand why this 
credit control measure is only suitable in the historically poor black 
areas and not the historically rich white areas. Bad payers cannot be 
described in terms of colour or geographical area."

In contrast, eThekwini city manager Michael Sutcliffe observes that 
Durban shunned this technique.

"We do not agree that is the way to go," he told Business Day last week.

"We replaced all our prepaid water meters when we created the new 
democratic government."

However, if citizens wish to file a similar lawsuit against eThekwini 
Water and Sanitation, they would easily find other low-quality water 
technologies only in poor and working-class areas, including urinary 
diversion toilets.

Consider, for instance, the thousands of 200-litre yard drums for which 
Durban water manager Neil Macleod wins international acclaim. The drums 
also fail the race/class fairness test. How many are there in 
upper-income suburbs?

Starting on July 1, if the council approves his proposal, Macleod may 
have an answer. Rather than replace the low-pressure drums with regular 
connections so as to meet Judge Tsoka's standards, instead the 
municipality will fill them up not only once each evening, but again 
with 100 litres extra during the day.


Still short

However, for homes with more than six people that is still short of the 
50 litres per person recommended by international health experts, an 
amount promised back in the 1994 Reconstruction and Development Programme.

One tempting short cut - albeit one which will do enormous damage - is 
to try limiting free basic water to people judged "indigent", a classic 
technique of poverty "targeting" promoted by the World Bank.

Given how volatile income can be in the informal sector, this is an 
administrative nightmare. How does a woman selling tomatoes prove her 
income? Means testing also stigmatises beneficiaries.

Instead, Macleod is considering using a house value of R190 000 as a 
cut-off to determine which "indigents" receive free water. But that too 
is a thorny approach especially in light of the municipality's rates 
valuation debacle and South Africa's real estate bubble.

Moreover, because the number of people living in each home is not 
recorded, the bias is towards small households. Yet larger households 
with tenants and Aids orphans most need the extra free water.

Macleod's plans should be scrapped in order to comply with the RDP, the 
constitution and the ANC December 2000 municipal election promise. "All 
residents", said the ANC then, will receive "a free basic amount of 
water, electricity and other municipal services so as to help the poor. 
Those who use more than the basic amounts will pay for the extra they use".

Serving "all residents" could be accomplished with an additional record 
for each household in the billing database, showing how many residents 
there are, by using ID numbers and other means of unique identification, 
updated once a year, so there is no cheating.

To defeat diarrhoea, cholera and other waterborne diseases, and to 
achieve fairness and gender equity (because women suffer most when water 
is short), we need a universal entitlement to water.

It should be paid for by cross-subsidisation: ie, an ever-higher price 
for luxury levels of consumption. Those using more than 30 kilolitres 
per household per month are, in our view, consuming hedonistically, and 
should pay handsomely for the privilege in an era of growing water scarcity.

Judge Tsoka's ruling should be heeded by Durban officials to avoid the 
embarrassment and expense of a court challenge, one aimed merely at 
getting ANC politicians to remember pledges.

At a time Sutcliffe and Macleod are criticised for inadequate sanitation 
coverage and broken pipes that spoil beautiful Blue Flag beaches, 
expanding free basic water would show compassion and common sense.

# Patrick Bond is director at the UKZN Centre for Civil Society. 
Chatsworth activist Orlean Naidoo is a community scholar at the centre.