Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the media. We have called you here today to discuss a major intervention to turn the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) from its current state to a more efficient and agile organisation, capable of carrying out its mandate to deliver water to South Africa.
Water management and provision is a never ending non-stop business (24hr a day/7days a week/365 days per year) which requires an extremely efficient and effective business approach to the way we not only manage the resource but also in the way that we provide services to all South Africans. This requires that we supplement the capacity of our existing pool of professionals (engineers, scientists and technologists) to raise the bar as we respond to the development challenges of our country.
As you are acutely aware, the DWA has had a rough time with regard to the negative findings by the Auditor-General on its annual report over the past few years. The Standing Committee on Public Accounts has raised several concerns regarding efficiencies in financial and operational management of the DWA. I have also personally observed deficiencies in the configuration of the DWA and the sector which hampers the agility of the DWA to deliver services.
We have thus appointed a Committee of Experts (the Committee) to advise, over the next year, on how to effect and implement a radical improvement within the DWA. These experts possess and have a variety of skills in organisational renewal, financial and operational management, information technology and turn around in general
The appointed committee has already embarked upon a business process reengineering intervention to determine and address a number of debilitating issues within water affairs preventing the DWA from becoming an efficiently functional entity and fulfilling its rightful role as a key player in economic development and job creation in our country.
Firstly, one of the greatest challenges facing water provision in South Africa is the aging water resource infrastructure. Initiatives to address the backlog on rehabilitation/refurbishment of infrastructure initiatives are being developed through effective long term financial planning which will be conducted to determine the funding requirements to refurbish and maintain the infrastructure. A rigorous infrastructure asset management system, enabled by information technology will also be implemented to ensure that in the future asset monitoring and conditioning is properly conducted.
There is a further challenge of linking the bulk infrastructure, provided by the Department of Water Affairs, to reticulated water infrastructure provided by local government water services authorities. This requires a new approach to water provision, though integrated and aligned service delivery arrangements with a concomitant and functional infrastructure from ''Source to Tap and waste to source''. This requires joint planning and execution between the levels of government and strong cooperative governance frameworks to impact the redress of the underserved areas of our population, who without water have no chance of a sustainable livelihood and even less to develop economically.
The management and treatment of wastewater and infrastructure is also being addressed. The DWA will work with municipalities to address challenges such as effluent discharges into rivers and streams, aging water infrastructure, the state of the waste water treatment works and skills development.
This is currently being conducted through the Accelerated Community Infrastructure Programme which looks at the rehabilitation and refurbishment of waste water treatment facilities. We will introduce new Regulations for Process Controlling which incorporates mandatory training for all water and wastewater process controllers with the objective of enhancing and professionalising water and waste water treatment skills.
The water user licence backlog, which could hamper economic development, is being addressed through process reengineering to ensure the capacity to conduct the applications, applicant education, responsibility for applications, the alignment to information management systems and automation of the process. The improvement of this process is essential as it is a source of revenue for future infrastructure funding.
Legislation under review is being assessed by the committee to assess whether changes to the entire water management value chain can be affected to the maximum benefit of water service delivery.
The demand for water is growing and bulk supply is dwindling due to pollution, wastage and climate change. Groundwater remains an essential source of water which has not been fully exploited in the country. The supply and demand balance is being assessed in terms of overseeing that effective long term strategic plans are in place and that can be effectively executed on by our competent and skilled employees working effectively within water affairs.
The committee along with the National Water Advisory Council is diligently driving the DWAs focus on monitoring and utilisation of groundwater resources especially addressing the Acid Mine Drainage issue which threatens the programmes to manage water quality.
The DWA is aiming for effective water management that will ensure water security, water quality, and water access to all; focusing on redressing areas that have experienced ineffective service delivery. The committee is intervening to resolve the skewed water allocation ratios and the configuration of source to tap and waste to source.
The aim is to address the negative consequences emanating from historically skewed water allocation, and the committee will advise on the broad strategy on water reallocation. This will enhance work already being done by the DWA to reallocate water through water use licences. The DWA is developing tangible and realistic plans to meet the challenge of meeting basic human needs while protecting environmental needs.
The committee will look at ways of enhancing how the DWA raises public awareness of the value of water, including all policy and decision makers in the country, who need to be made aware of the role of water as a strategic resource. DWA needs to play a pivotal role in our country in changing our behaviour and attitudes towards water and use resources efficiently to ensure its sustainable availability for the benefit of all.
Turning around the Water Trading Entity (WTE) is being treated as an urgent strategic project by the committee. Business processes are being instituted, and the internal controls and non-compliance accounting systems are being resolved. The funding model for the WTE is being revised to address operating losses.
The current information technology (IT) operating model at DWA is already in the process of being re-evaluated to improve IT governance and better use IT as an enabler of all process at the DWA. The use of the Enterprise Resource Planning system will be assessed to ensure that maximum return on investment is achieved.
The DWA is being assisted in establishing adequate financial plans to secure funding for managing the provision of water into the future and part of this will require the effective management of costs across all water institutions. The existing water pricing strategy will be assessed to ascertain its suitability to the various groups of consumers and in providing sufficient funding to maintain the infrastructure and mechanisms of supply.
The issue of internal controls at DWA and other institutions is being resolved through developing processes and process re-engineering to enable effective revenue collection, fund management and procurement practices among other key functions. Policies are being reviewed to ensure that all the correct tools are in place to resolve audit qualifications.
Human resource systems are being reviewed to ensure that the DWA has plans for staffing, human resource development and individual performance management that are currently assisting it to improve its performance and build a capable workforce.
Ladies and gentlemen the team has since appointment in July of this year made considerable progress in appraising the challenges in the organisation and in mapping clear interventions on certain aspects in the medium to long term period.
We are delighted with the progress they are already making and we will certainly keep the country abreast with regard to the progress in the project.
Thank you.
Enquiries:
Sputnik Ratau
Cell: 082 874 2942
