Eastern Cape piloting of CSIR research to improve water services reliability

Abstract

CSIR research has found that operations and maintenance partnerships, using the basic principles of franchising, could address many challenges in the operation and maintenance of water services. This was reported at the CSIR 2nd Biennial Conference held in 2008. Franchising provides appropriate training to people active on site, and also offers backup off-site skills, with incentives for finding people with the appropriate skills required. Findings indicate that many opportunities lie in the franchising of suitable elements in the water services value chain, and a selection of these has been modelled on paper. The franchising concept is being piloted with considerable success in the Eastern Cape. Under the guidance of a franchisor, trainee franchisees are well advanced with initial cleaning and the routine maintenance of the sanitation facilities at 400 schools. Irish Aid is funding concept development, while the franchisees are paid by the provincial Department of Education from the normal departmental budgets for operation and maintenance. Service delivery has shown such a marked improvement that the Department is requesting rollout to a further 1 000 schools.