Explore publications.

This article explores accountability and strategies to improve water service delivery in South African local municipalities, focusing on Bushbuckridge Local Municipality. Public officials often struggle to implement effective measures to ensure adequate water provision. Accountability in water delivery remains weak, with municipalities widely underperforming due to unqualified personnel, lack of technical expertise, corruption, and limited financial resources. These factors hinder municipalities’ ability to uphold Section 27 of the 1996 Constitution, which guarantees citizens the right to clean water. Using a qualitative approach, the study reviews scholarly literature, government reports, and policy documents to assess performance and challenges. Findings reveal that mismanagement of municipal funds and employment of unqualified technical staff are key causes of poor water service delivery. The study also highlights that increasing water boreholes could reduce waterborne diseases and lower living costs for local residents. However, successful investment in borehole infrastructure requires parallel efforts to develop managerial and financial skills among community members and leaders of community-based organisations (CBOs). Strengthening collaboration between municipalities, CBOs, and communities is vital to enhance participation, promote accountability, and achieve sustainable water service delivery in Bushbuckridge and other South African municipalities.

Smallholder irrigation schemes have been a significant strategy to ensure food security and poverty reduction in rural areas worldwide. Despite the efforts by the South African government to rehabilitate and revitalise smallholder irrigation schemes, the schemes have been performing below expectations. This follows the failure of water governance institutions to execute their roles within the schemes, thus affecting optimum agricultural production. Therefore, it is against this background that this study sought to assess water governance institutions and their related roles at Nzhelele area of Vhembe District, South Africa. A mixed-methods research design was adopted. Fifty-six farmers were selected through a census sampling method to participate in qualitative and quantitative data collection using a semi-structured interview guide and a questionnaire. Qualitative data were analysed using Atlas.ti, Version 8.0 software to perform thematic content analysis. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS version 28 for descriptive statistics. The study revealed that there are various water governance institutions within the schemes, namely, the scheme committee, the Water Users Association, and the Informal water institutions. These water governance institutions have varied roles regarding irrigation water governance within the schemes. Based on the findings, this study recommends that water governance institutions should be active in performing their roles and responsibilities in irrigation schemes to foster improvement in adherence to the water rules and regulations in place.

Kisumu Water and Sewerage Company has consistently struggled to achieve its envisioned accepted performance range of 80-90% set by the Water Sector Regulatory Board standards, for instance, the company performance was estimated at 76% against business plan target of 80% despite having unlimited access to government subsidies, donor grants, commercial loans and enabling policy environment based on performance review of Kenya’s water services sector 2017/2018. This study sought to establish the influence of strategic resource allocation on performance of KIWASCO. The study adopted a correlation research design with a sample size of 68 respondents selected through Stratified random sampling and data collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. Both descriptive and inferential statistics of correlation and regression were used. The study established a significant influence of resource allocation (p<0.001) on organizational performance at 5% level of significance. It was concluded that for desired performance of KIWASCO to be realized, effective resource allocation should be done to increase investments in infrastructural expansion and rehabilitation, wastage reduction, improved service quality, maximized consumer services and improved cash flow. The study recommends that the WASH sector reforms should prioritize resource allocation for implementation of strategies. Future research should explore the moderating role of strategic leadership in similar companies and trends across business periods within similar regulatory context.