South Africa's water and sanitation sector is divided into three unique stages:
• The national authority represented by the water and sanitation sector acts as a policy-making agency,
• Water Authority primarily provides bulk water and provides some retail services, and treats some Wastewater Treatment Plants while serving a water control function,
and municipalities providing full services retailers even have some bulk supply infrastructure.
In addition, banks, WISA professional associations, water research committees and civil society are also important stakeholders in the sector.
3.7.1 Regulation and Policy
The water affairs department of the Ministry of Water and Environment is usually responsible for the formulation and implementation of water resources management and drinking water transportation policies. The independent investigation report indicated that authorities at all levels still lack oversight of sanitation facilities. Since 2010, health issues have shifted from the water sector to the human settlements sector, although some regulatory functions appear to remain the responsibility of the water sector, creating confusion between the roles and responsibilities of the agency.
(Tissington, 2011)
3.7.2 Service provision
All entities share the obligation to provide services. The country’s 231 cities are responsible for delivering water and sanitation facilities through municipal companies
a large amount of water supply infrastructure and some wastewater systems. The price range of the TransCaledon Tunnel Authority and the development of a large number of water supply infrastructure and dams.
According to the Constitution, the Municipal Structure Act, and the 1997 Water Supply Act (Republic of South Africa, 1997), the water service authority bears the water supply and sanitation obligations. The Water Supply Act stipulates how municipal authorities perform their duties. The country comprises 278 municipalities, including 8 metropolitan areas, 44 districts and 266 municipalities (Republic of South Africa, 2019).
Figure 3. 1: South Africa map of districts (South Africa Explore, 2020)
In many cases, the district municipality is the water supply entity, but the national authority may assign service provision obligations to the local municipality. There are 169 water supply agencies, water offices, district municipalities, local municipalities and municipal companies in South Africa. Municipalities provide water and sanitation services immediately through municipal units or departments; for example, eThekwini in Durban provides these services through the eThekwini Water and Sanitation Unit.
(eThekwini Municipality, 2011)
However, they can delegate this responsibility to the water service provider within a specified time. For example, in 2001, the city of Johannesburg established the Johannesburg Water Company, a legally and financially independent company wholly owned by the city. This is an integral part of the transformation plan initiated by the Johannesburg Municipality during this period. Johannesburg Water Company has
agreed to comply with the King Report on Corporate Governance (Manual of Operational Guidelines and Corporate Governance Structure), which includes affirmative action, transparency, general performance evaluation and ethical threat management guidelines, and sustainability reports. The 1996 Constitution strengthened the autonomy of the municipalities so that rural water supply and sanitation facilities have been transferred from national to municipal authorities.
Some municipalities link the private sector to contracts for specific services in various ways to provide services, such as wastewater treatment, temporary management contracts, and long-term concessions (Chirwa, 2004).
The 15 government water offices have played an important role; they operate dams, bulk water supply systems, retail infrastructure, and wastewater treatment plants. In addition, some provide technical assistance to municipalities (Republic of South Africa, 2020).
The Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority is a state-owned entity whose mission is to fund and influence bulk raw water infrastructure. It was established in 1986 to augment the Lesotho Highlands Water Mission in the Lesotho-South Africa cooperation project.
Since 2012, the agency has been developing another six dams and bulk water supply projects. It sells water in bulk to the state, represented by the water authority, because it is the owner of the water authority, responsible for treating the water and selling it directly to municipalities and mines. The Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority used the sale to pay off the debt it incurred for infrastructure financing, labor costs and royalties paid to the Lesotho government (TCTA, 2020).
South Africa has a fairly strong research and education infrastructure in the water sector. The Water Research Council funds water research and development and establishes sustainable water research capacities in the country, and assumes the role of the national water knowledge entity in the creation, dissemination and application of knowledge of water resources in the management of water resources, water ecosystems, water use and waste management and water use for agriculture (WATER RESEARCH COMMISSION, 2018).
The Southern African Water Research Institute is a professional subsidiary organization that keeps participants informed of modern developments in water technology and research through its national and global contacts, contacts and associations. (WISA, 2020)
The Southern African Development Bank is a major player in the water and sanitation sector, a financier, consultant and project sponsor. From 2005 to 2006, approximately 29% of approved initiatives were used for water supply and sanitation. Other financial institutions in the industry include Infrastructure Finance Corporation Limited, the world's only 100% private infrastructure debt fund.
CHAPTER FOUR
SITE SELECTION AND CHARACTERISTICS
A feasibility study of an isolated solar water purification requires a site with adequate resources. South Africa has a wealth of solar resources with readily available topographic and geographic resource information. The study considers a farming community of fifty households in The Mbhashe Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.