Transcript Socio-ecological citizenship: place and commodification

Better water delivery and revolts
Greg Ruiters
Theory of revolts and Service
delivery
 SD revolts … well known but not well understood
 Absolute needs …fallacy of basic needs
 Relative is much more important than absolute poverty as
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causes..
Rel. means: Who do we compare with … (London riots)
Revolution and injustice … always relative PLUS when
people see their suffering as unnecessary (BarringtonMoore’s thesis)
Dignity… is relative
Plus rising expectations … in an upturn…
These factors dangerous for any state
class and racial, gender identity,
dignity, memory
 In South Africa, the colonial white supremicist state
denied blacks political, social and ecological
citizenship.
 Apartheid was very much a project to dominate &
humiliate black people. Unemployment…barren
townships and homelands, cheap labour, landlessness
This is not over yet since 1994.
 Yet people see others living in luxury … “conspicuous
consumption”…
South Africa, post-1994: Fallacy of
basic
 “Everyone has a right of access to basic water supply and
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basic sanitation”. Section 27 (1) of the Constitution. The
Water Services Act of 1997, Section 3(1)
Water ladder … (Kasrils)
RDP from basic – a short term measure -- to intermediate
to full
The 1996 Constitution split responsibilities for water: the
national government manages national water resources
while most of the 284 local governments were responsible
for delivering basic water and sanitation services.
Problems:Municipalities are an autonomous sphere of
government, also largely self-financed with 90% of their
funds from own revenue in (NT, 2006).
Access to Flush toilets by race:
2006
Yard tap .. No flush …incompatible
service levels
White standards…
 Former white suburbs in metros account for more than fifty
percent of total residential water use but make up less than
8% of total population (Rose 2005).
 Black farmers cannot access water, free basic water is not
enough for consumptive, let alone productive use and with
the government’s willing selling willing buyer land policy,
whites own the best land.
 In 2004, well-off Johannesburg residents (mainly in former
white areas) used 60 kl (60 0000 litres) or more per month
(Hunter, 2005:331).
 Those who command money, command water and could
make it flow uphill”.
Basic needs for blacks?
Death and Water
SACP criticisms of throwing
deliverables at townships…
 in 2009 the Communist Party ideologue Cronin (SACP leader and
Transport Deputy Minister) posed a fundamental challenge:
 “in 15 years of democracy we have failed to transform the spatial
patterns of apartheid. Our social geography continues to reproduce
grotesque levels of racialised inequality and separation. Where you
live determines what education you are likely to get, what
possibilities you have of future employment ... We’ve abolished
pass laws, influx control and group areas, but a grossly inequitable
property market continues to separate poor from rich with as much
severity as any apartheid-era pass-office functionary. Throwing more
“deliverables” at townships will not, by itself, transform these
spatial realities. We need a different kind of development - more
mixed-income, mixed-usage, medium-density cities, not urban sprawl,
not matchbox, dormitory accommodation”.
(http://www.news24.com/Opinions/QAndA/Cronin-vs-Leon-Servicedelivery-protests-20090806)
Water inequality still there in 2009
 In 2009 one four Africans obtained water off-site.
 RSA, General Household Survey 2009 ..
 The proportion of Africans using communal taps
(offsite water) rose from 22 to 26,5 per cent between
2002 and 2009
 Only 2 percent of other groups used offsite water.
(GHS 2010).
Communal tap… 1 in 4 blacks
 In SSA in a year some 40 billion hours are spent
collecting water, equivalent to a years labour in
France (UN 2006: 47)
 The time diaries of rural South African women “show
that the average time spent collecting water was 44
minutes per day for those who accessed water from less
than 100 meters from the household, increasing to 71
minutes for those that accessed water more than 1
kilometre for the household”. (Stats SA, 2001:64).
 A typical rural woman in South Africa might spend up
to 4.6 hours per day collecting water and fuel.
Cost recovery …self-financing and
difficult tasks of Municipality
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Section 96 of Muni Systems Act…
A municipality(a) must collect all money that is due and payable to it, and
(b) must adopt, maintain and implement a credit control
and debt collection policy which is consistent with its rates
and tariff policies and complies with the provisions of this
Act.”
 Section 15 provides the “power to terminate or restrict
provision of municipal services”. The council can make a
final demand for payment and then cutoff if a resident
“fails to submit written proof of registration as an
indigent person in terms of section 23,
Free Basic Water (FBW) challenges
 6000 l per erf …per month = 25 lppd per person based
on 8 persons per stand.
 Backyarders … ave of 15 persons in Soweto
 “The fundamental problem of the FBW policy is
making sure that users understand that only essential
needs are covered…” (AFD Working Paper Sept 2006:
18)
Implement FBW: challenges
 3 ways to carry out FBW (universal, targeted/indigent list
and by service level).
 In most medium and small towns and rural areas FBW was
realised through a targeted or selective approach.
 By providing a rudimentary level of services such as
standpipe for free we got “service level targeting”. But such
“free” use came at a cost since users had to walk and queue
at taps and then carry heavy water back to their homes.
Gradually as more taps broke, users found themselves
walking back to polluted rivers for water (Greenberg 2005).
 We don’t have good info on disconnections and
breakdowns
Indigents: problems of inclusion
 the poor must “come forward” with documentation to
register themselves and then the state may verify them as
‘indigent”.
 In 2007, a total of 207 municipalities (two thirds) had FBW
indigent support policies in place and 227 out of 283 had
Free Basic Electricity indigence policies (RSA, 2009: 14,
table 10).
 Municipalities were able to identify 3,5 million indigent
households during 2008, of which only 1,9 million (54,7%)
received the indigent water service (RSA, 2009)
 Only 1,6 million indigent households (44,9%) benefited
from the free basic electricity service (RSA, 2009).
Contradictions of FBW
 The problem is formulated as “communities not
playing their part” in fulfilling the tacit bargain that
will observe rules and pay for “excess” use.
 The “attitudes of the poor” are a problem.
 The state saw FBW as a means to separate poor into
different “manageable” categories and impose means
tests or ‘targeted’ forms of minimal benefits which
became available only to the registered poor.
 The behavioural functions of FBW, the attempted rollin (reigning in) of the poor through an indigent
surveillance system.
Contradictions of over-emphaasis
on cost recovery in public goods
 Department of Finance suggested “to make it (FBW)
work, only the really proven poor should get these
while anyone else should be forced to pay even at
higher tariffs” (2001: 132). But how do u define poor..
 Two years later the same department noted: ‘there is
some evidence to suggest that poor households using
more than 6 kl per month are adversely affected due to
the steep increase in tariffs after the free 6 kl’ (Dof,
2003: 222).
Indigency
 in most municipalities, the number of registered
indigents is admitted to be grossly underrepresentative of those who actually qualify (CALS,
2008).
 The government estimates that more than half the
population in 40 per cent of towns qualify as indigents
(Business Day 1 December 2008).
Exit strategies..
 Municipalities under pressure to kick hh off indigent
register
 “Municipalities need to start planning realistic exit
strategies for their indigent populations to exit from
the indigent registers and subsidies. This will entail
that the living circumstance of the indigent has
improved significantly so that the indigent can afford
to pay for their service” (Cogta 2009)
Way forward … what can we do
 Better information
 More focus on quality and maintenance of services
 Upgrade … on the water ladder ‘
 ADD OTHER IDEAS …
 Siya bonga
 Enkosi