The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) will launch the national public consultation on the Draft Water and Sanitation Services Policy on Privately Owned Land. The launch will take place on Thursday, 16 March 2023 at Birchwood Hotel, Boksburg in Gauteng.
The national public consultation above the above-mentioned policy seeks to solicit inputs from the public, stakeholders in the sector and also to raise awareness. Privately-owned land is a land that is not owned, controlled, or leased by the state. This may include commercial farms, mine owned land, churches owned land, trust properties, game parks, sectional or residential complexes among others.
The Department started its consultations in provinces in December 2022, to get input from affected stakeholders including farm dwellers, residents in privately owned lands and property owners as well as affected organs of state on the matter. The provincial hearings were completed in February 2023.
The draft policy seeks to explore ways to redress the provision of water services to residents on privately owned land by ensuring that there is access to a safe and potable water supply and sanitation, supported by appropriate health and hygiene practices for the people living on those lands that are currently out of municipal distributing network, using water services intermediaries’ mechanisms as enshrined in the Water Services Act, 1997 (Act No. 108 of 1997).
The draft framework comes as a result of the 2017 judgment on the case involving Mshengu vs uMsunduzi, uMshwathi local municipalities, uMgungundlovu District Municipality and others, and the Department of Water and Sanitation as the sixth respondent, where the court judgment stated that failure by the Water Services Authorities (WSA) to provide farm dwellers and labour tenants with access to basic sanitation, sufficient water, and collection of refuse was inconsistent with the constitution.
This necessitated the Department to revive the draft policy to provide a framework on how to deal with the provision of water services to people living on privately owned land.
Source: Government of South Africa