National Water Services Benchmarking Initiative

Timeframe: 2006 - ongoing

Partners:

              South African Local Government Association (SALGA)
              Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF)
              Water Research Council (WRC)

The goal of the National Water Services Benchmarking Initiative is to promote improved performance of water services by all water services providers in South Africa.

The initiative undertakes annual benchmarking of key performance indicators for the provision of water services in participating municipalities. This process involves site visits and quality control (of data) to ensure consistency and reliability. Outcomes are presented at an annual benchmarking conference to highlight achievements and best practices and to direct learning efforts to areas where improvements can be achieved.

Role of Benchmarking

The South African water sector faces four key challenges in the short and medium term:
•    to increase affordable access to water supply and sanitation services;
•    to ensure that the services provided are sustainable;
•    to develop the necessary capacity to meet the above two challenges; and
•    to improve performance so as to meet the above challenges in the most
      effective and efficient way.

Benchmarking will play an important role in helping the sector to assess to what extent water services providers are meeting these challenges and, in particular, to what extent sector performance is improving over time. More significantly, benchmarking will help to identify best practices from which others can learn as well as areas most needing improvement.

Workshop

The partners Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, Water Research Commission and the South African Local Government Association will be hosting the third annual benchmarking workshop in Gauteng, Misty Hills on the 21-23 February 2008.  Further details on the conference are obtainable from Mr. William Moraka, at 012 369 8056, 082 308 5519, email: wmoraka@salga.org.za.