Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Good Practices and InnovATIONS in Public Governance Africa South Africa 2007 Category 2 Winner e’Thekwini Water and Sanitation Debt Relief e’Thekwini Municipality, South Africa Description Reducing the consumption of water and encouraging citizens to pay for the water used by involving all stakeholders through participatory water management. Summary This project has provided successful solutions to reducing the public debt and managing water consumption in the e’Thekwini Municipality in South Africa by involving all stakeholders in identifying leaks and maintaining consumption under the free water limit. The Problem Local governments in South Africa, metropolitan municipalities in particular, are faced with spiraling water debt due to the non-payment or irregular payments by customers in low-income areas. As the majority of all local government income is generated locally, steady cutbacks from national and provincial government to local government have resulted in reduced transfers coupled with expanded responsibilities. This has made cost-recovery and cost cutting measures inevitable. These challenges contributed to local government’s inability to address basic service backlogs in municipalities, which owed huge sums of money. By July 2004, the e’Thekwini Municipality had to address the R20 million in outstanding water payments in 20 of the worst paying wards in the municipal area. Moreover, many citizens living in the e’Thekwini Municipality had very little hope of ever repaying their debt and returning to a stable financial position. Thousands of customers, who were ‘blacklisted’ by credit bureaus, could not open accounts, and feared having their homes sold to recover debt; they also experienced other forms of financial restrictions. Due to the devastation brought on by HIV/AIDS, many households were headed by pensioners and/or children. This further heightened economic and social pressure within these households. Arbitrarily cutting off their water supply would have worsened their economic position and have devastating consequences for the well being of these families. The Solution To address these challenges, the e’Thekwini Municipality, with support from the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, conceptualized and developed a debt relief 306
2007 Category 2: South Africa strategy that provided a window period, within which customers could become debt free by making regular monthly payments. Through this programme, local officials launched a campaign to explain debt-related problems to the citizenry, and to provide solutions to reducing water consumption, identifying leaks and maintaining consumption under the free water limit. A priority of the programme was to identify the thousands of e’Thekwini customers who had accumulated large arrears due to leaks, mismanagement and lack of resources. Once they were identified, they were educated on how to best manage their limited resources. Where possible, the municipality provided additional support in training. The purpose of the programme was therefore to assist the indigent, so that they could experience a better quality of life and so that the municipality could generate the much needed additional income. People covered by the programme had to live in homes that did not exceed R100,000 in cost; their debts had to be at least 90 days overdue. Agreements were drawn up with the targeted group whereby debt would be written-off over 50 months as long as the monthly payments thereafter were up to date. But if they defaulted for more than four months, then the debt relief contract would be cancelled and the debt would be reinstated. An extensive advertising campaign to promote the debt relief programme was implemented using radio, local newspapers, councillors, leaflets and customer service agents. While a training and awareness campaign used a leaflet to explain the programme in ‘a user friendly way’, social workers were trained and were managed by Khanyisa Projects to educate customers in their homes regarding their debt and the options available to them. Here social workers used the leaflet, the billing history and the meter readings to assess the reason for the debt accumulation, and explained how the customer could take advantage of the debt relief programme. A social worker was also appointed to assist indigent, child-headed and pensioner-headed households. Currently, 28,000 customers are involved in the project, and it has enabled the municipality to receive R15.6 million from customers who had not paid their water accounts previously. Due to these customers contributing towards their current accounts, the municipality was able to write-off R12.9 million in debt. Of the 28,000 customers, 70% pay their accounts regularly. The water consumption of the customers in the programme has also been reduced from an average of 0.63kl per day to 0.55kl, a saving of 52 800kl a month. This translates into a financial saving of R270,000 per month, which can now be used to assist the indigent, who are unable to pay for water. 307
Page 1:
Good Practices and Innovations in P
Page 4 and 5:
DESA MISSION STATEMENT The Departme
Page 6 and 7:
Good Practices and InnovATIONS in P
Page 8 and 9:
Page 10 and 11:
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Page 22 and 23:
Page 24 and 25:
Page 26 and 27:
Page 28 and 29:
Page 30 and 31:
Page 32 and 33:
Page 34 and 35:
Page 36 and 37:
Page 38 and 39:
Page 40 and 41:
Page 42 and 43:
Graph 4: United Nations Public Serv
Page 44 and 45:
Page 46 and 47:
Page 48 and 49:
Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55:
Page 56 and 57:
Page 58 and 59:
Page 60 and 61:
Page 62 and 63:
Page 64 and 65:
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80 and 81:
Page 82 and 83:
Page 84 and 85:
Page 86 and 87:
Page 88 and 89:
Page 90 and 91:
Page 92 and 93:
Page 94 and 95:
Page 96 and 97:
Page 98 and 99:
Page 100 and 101:
Page 102 and 103:
Page 104 and 105:
Page 106 and 107:
Page 108 and 109:
Page 110 and 111:
Page 112 and 113:
Page 114 and 115:
Page 116 and 117:
Page 118 and 119:
Page 120 and 121:
Page 122 and 123:
Page 124 and 125:
Page 126 and 127:
Page 128 and 129:
Page 130 and 131:
Page 132 and 133:
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
Page 138 and 139:
Page 140 and 141:
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
Page 148 and 149:
Page 150 and 151:
Page 152 and 153:
Page 154 and 155:
Page 156 and 157:
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
Page 162 and 163:
Page 164 and 165:
Page 166 and 167:
Page 168 and 169:
Page 170 and 171:
Page 172 and 173:
Page 174 and 175:
Page 176 and 177:
Page 178 and 179:
Page 180 and 181:
Page 182 and 183:
Page 184 and 185:
Page 186 and 187:
Page 188 and 189:
Page 190 and 191:
Page 192 and 193:
Page 194 and 195:
Page 197 and 198:
2009 United Nations Public Service
Page 199 and 200:
2009 Category 1: republic of Korea
Page 201 and 202:
2009 Category 1: Sweden Europe and
Page 203 and 204:
2009 Category 2: South Africa Afric
Page 205 and 206:
2009 Category 2: Thailand Asia and
Page 207 and 208:
2009 Category 2: Egypt Western Asia
Page 209 and 210:
Page 211 and 212:
2009 Category 3: Republic of Korea
Page 213:
2009 Category 4: Poland Europe and
Page 216 and 217:
Page 218 and 219:
Page 220 and 221:
Page 222 and 223:
Page 224 and 225:
Page 226 and 227:
Page 228 and 229:
Page 230 and 231:
Page 232 and 233:
Page 234 and 235:
Page 236 and 237:
Page 238 and 239:
Page 240 and 241:
Page 242 and 243:
Page 244 and 245:
Page 246 and 247:
Page 248 and 249:
Page 250 and 251:
Page 252 and 253:
Page 254 and 255:
Page 256 and 257:
Page 258 and 259:
Page 260 and 261:
Page 262 and 263:
Page 264 and 265:
Page 266 and 267:
Page 268 and 269:
Page 270 and 271:
Page 272 and 273:
Page 274 and 275:
Page 276 and 277:
Page 278 and 279:
Page 280 and 281: Good Practices and InnovATIONS in P
Page 380 and 381:
Page 382 and 383:
Page 384 and 385:
Page 386 and 387:
Page 388 and 389:
Page 390 and 391:
Page 392 and 393:
Page 395 and 396:
Page 397 and 398:
2004 Category 1: Morocco Africa Mor
Page 399 and 400:
2004 Category 1: Canada Europe and
Page 401 and 402:
2004 Category 1: Brazil Latin Ameri
Page 403 and 404:
2004 Category 1: Brazil Many countr
Page 405 and 406:
2004 Category 2: Cameroon Africa Ca
Page 407 and 408:
2004 Category 2: Australia Asia and
Page 409 and 410:
2004 Category 2: Austria Europe and
Page 411 and 412:
2004 Category 2: Brazil Latin Ameri
Page 413 and 414:
Page 415 and 416:
2004 Category 3: South Africa Since
Page 417 and 418:
2004 Category 3: Malaysia NPC champ
Page 419 and 420:
2004 Category 4: Philippines Asia a
Page 421 and 422:
Page 423 and 424:
2003 Category 1: Singapore Asia and
Page 425 and 426:
2003 Category 1: Singapore technolo
Page 427 and 428:
2003 Category 1: Greece The agencie
Page 429 and 430:
2003 Category 1: Bolivia To underta
Page 431 and 432:
Page 433 and 434:
2003 Category 2: Spain period, the
Page 435 and 436:
2003 Category 2: MEXICO • Creatio
Page 437 and 438:
2003 Category 2: Egypt • Integrat
Page 439 and 440:
2003 Category 3: Zambia Africa Zamb
Page 441 and 442:
2003 Category 3: Republic of Korea
Page 443 and 444:
2003 Category 3: Canada Europe and
Page 445 and 446:
2003 Category 3: Italy Europe and N
Page 447 and 448:
2003 Category 3: Chile Latin Americ
Page 449:
2003 Category 3: Lebanon Western As
Page 453 and 454:
Page 455 and 456:
The Impact of the UNPSA on InnovATI
Page 457 and 458:
The Impact of the UNPSA on InnovATI
Page 459 and 460:
Page 461 and 462:
Lessons Learned on InnovATION in Go
Page 464:
This publication provides an overvi
show all

Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?