The Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa (Imesa) on Tuesday welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s National Water Action Plan (NWAP), which was published in July.

However, the institute argues that professional accountability and utility-style water management is required, along with the professional registration of senior municipal officials.

The NWAP sets out short-, medium- and long-term interventions aimed at securing a reliable supply of quality water to all South Africans, including increased infrastructure investment, legal and regulatory reform and measures to address corruption and criminality in the water sector.

Imesa president Geoff Tooley said in a statement that the plan’s emphasis on institutional reform should include the professional registration of senior municipal officials as a central pillar of the strategy.

The  water sector reform will only succeed if municipalities are led by competent, professionally registered officials who are accountable to both their municipality and their professional body.

The specific profession in which the administrators are registered is not important.

“Senior officials could come from disciplines including law, town planning, engineering, accounting or land surveying, provided they are professionally registered with the relevant body,” Tooley explained, noting the dual accountability framework this would create, with senior officials accountable to their municipalities while also being subject to the standards and requirements of their professional bodies.

“This will give professional ethics greater weight in public administration. Failure to act professionally could ultimately affect an official’s professional status and, where professional registration is a requirement of the post, their ability to remain in that position.”

An immediate priority should also be to stabilise and maintain the infrastructure already in place.

“Getting back to basics means fixing what we have,” added Imesa director Bhavna Soni, highlighting the importance of adequate maintenance budget allocations for managing and stabilising existing water systems.

The commitment to ring-fencing water revenues is also welcomed, as financial sustainability is critical to the future of municipal water and sanitation services.

The NWAP identifies weaknesses in the existing municipal water-services model, including the use of water revenues to fund other municipal functions, which reduces resources available for maintenance, investment and skilled staff.

It also identifies diffuse accountability as a factor weakening incentives for effective and financially sustainable water management.

The Metro Trading Services Reform framework addresses these issues effectively through its seven-box matrix, she said.

There is a need for mechanisms to formalise service arrangements and revenue collection in rural areas and informal settlements.

“With informal settlements expanding, the scope for cross-subsidisation is becoming more difficult, making sustainable revenue collection increasingly important.”

Soni also called for disaster-related damage to water infrastructure to be funded separately through National Treasury disaster funding, rather than placing additional pressure on normal municipal water and sanitation budgets.

She contended that one of the most vital reforms is to ensure that every municipality’s Water and Sanitation Unit operates as a utility.

“This means treating these services like a self-sustaining business that must manage its own funds, operations and infrastructure efficiently rather than relying strictly on municipal general budgets.”

Imesa believed that the NWAP provides an important national framework, but its success will ultimately depend on its implementation at municipal level, including financial discipline, infrastructure maintenance, effective revenue management and ethical, accountable, professional leadership.