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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The paradox of 'free basic water' and cost recovery in Grabouw: increasing household debt and municipal financial loss
Authors:Peters, Karen
Oldfield, SophieISNI
Year:2005
Periodical:Urban Forum
Volume:16
Issue:4
Pages:313-335
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:urban poverty
water supply
production costs
External link:https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12132-005-0009-9
Abstract:South Africa's Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) introduced a free basic water (FBW) policy in 2000 in response to evidence of the denial of sufficient access to water for numerous low-income and poor households. Although FBW prevents the practice of cut-offs, it continues to operate within a cost-recovery framework, with municipalities restricting access to water by means of water-restricting devices (such as 'drips') in cases where households have not paid for overdue accounts. This paper examines the impact of the policy of cost recovery and FBW on the provision of water to households in Pineview North, a low to middle-income neighbourhood in Grabouw, a small municipality outside of Cape Town. It argues that FBW in the context of overall policies of cost-recovery creates a paradox in which low-income, poor households experience debilitating and insufficient access to water and increasing household debt, and - at the same time - small municipalities face increasing financial losses in the delivery of services such as water. Futhermore, non-payment of municipal services is not the result of a momentary crisis for households, but a structural problem of long-term permanent poverty. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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