The non-technical factors that affect sustainability of borehole systems in rural communities - A study on selected villages for the ASWSD project in Limpopo province

Abstract

Since 1994, the South African government embarked on a number of strategies, such as the Free Basic Water Support Programme and the Sustainability Guidelines for Rural Water Supply, to implement the Free Basic Water policy and speed up the delivery of basic services and the development of rural communities. To achieve this, local government then implemented water delivery programmes, mostly borehole water supply schemes in rural communities especially during the drought relief period. Today, some of the communities that benefited from such schemes are now without water or are struggling to get adequate supply due to frequent breakdowns in the borehole systems. This paper seeks to understand the non-technical factors that affect sustainability of borehole systems. It uses selected study sites of the Accelerating Sustainable Water Services Delivery (ASWSD) project in Limpopo, which is a study that is currently being done by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). A detailed consultative process with relevant stakeholders was embarked upon to derive the non-technical issues. Findings indicate that municipalities struggle with getting spares for boreholes from suppliers, agreements signed with suppliers are often short term, thus continued supply cannot be guaranteed, there are challenges in planning for operation and maintenance and providing security for borehole systems, and some borehole operators have not received proper training. Addressing these non-technical issues could have far-reaching benefits, and thus this paper recommends that municipality consider revising strategies to address them. As part of the strategies, the paper also proposes a renewed approach that considers community-based initiatives in rural water supply.