CHAPTER ELEVEN

ELECTRICITY AND WATER PROVISION

B y Julian May, Carey Ann May, Tris Newton, Ranveer Persad and Aki Stavrou

The provision of electricity and water has the potential to transform the u 0

lives of millions of people living in informal settlements in KwaZulu-Natal. But settlements are being overlooked by developers, and where provision has occurred it has been characterised by the use of appropriate technology which has been inappropriately implemented. This report provides a review and critique of the provision of electricity and water to informal settlements in the Durban Functional Region (DFR) and KwaZulu-Natal.

It is estimated that more than seven million urban South Africans currently live in informal settlements, around 2,5 million of them in KwaZulu-Natal. In the absence of mass housing, it must be anticipated that a large proportion of the three to four million more people who will be living in KwaZulu-Natal cities by the year 2020 will be informally housed.

Cl Electricity Provision

Eskom's Durban distributor is responsible for providing electricity over the whole of former Natal, which includes 40 local authorities. Electricity is sold in bulk to these areas, and electricity supply can be increased almost immediately, a s these areas are urban and already have infrastructure.

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The local authority is then responsible for distributing electricity to consumers. There are currently around 40 electricity connecting projects in Natal. In these projects it is thought that only half of the potential consumers in an area are connected the first time electricity is offered, but the connection rate increases to some 80% when a second round of connections is carried out.

As one of the larger local authority energy distributors, Durban Electricity has the goal of providing 170 000 people with electricity by 1997. Eskom made some 43 000 pre-payment connections during 1993, Kaye notes, far exceeding the previous year's achievement of some 35 000 connections. Capital expenditure associated with pre-payment connections is in the order of R3 000 to R3 500 per connection, indicating a significant defrayment of cost recovery.

Eskom embarked on an innovative programme of affordable electricity delivery almost a decade ago, as a strategy to meet the goal of mass electrification. This strategy was based on the pre-paid meter and ready board, which together formed a 'digital electricity dispenser'. Before this, getting connected to the electricity grid was expensive, often costing over R1 000, plus R1 500 for formal wiring of the home.

These new technologies led to the lowering of unrealistically high safety and quality standards, enabling their implementation into sub-standard homes, namely shacks. This meant that millions of people whose homes could not previously have been electrified were able to join the grid.

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A different method of payment to recover installation and running costs was also introduced, and meant that both pent up supply and unserviced demand could be met. Furthermore, the use of pre-paid meters resolved budgeting and payment problems for both the supplier and the consumer.

For the supplier the tasks of billing and collection have been eliminated, reducing administrative costs, bad debts and reconnection. The pre-paid concept also helped reduce the impact of consumer boycotts. The concept was, and indeed remains, supplier and consumer friendly.

O Water Provision

During the late 1980s, coinciding with the massive growth of informal settlements and chronic drought conditions, various water supply authorities in KwaZulu-Natal were forced to address the needs of under

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serviced areas. Given the enormity of the task the provision of reticulated water to every shack was impossible. Clearly the only route to follow was to provide public networks, and these included standpipes and water supply kiosks. Both still exist today.

Households in informal settlements meet their water needs in different ways. Where they are close to formal settlements, water can be bought for 50 cents a bucket. If available, water can be obtained from kiosks or standpipes. However, in many cases, water is collected from rivers and springs, both of which are often severely polluted.

Informal settlers can arrange with Durban Water to pay for a connection to piped water. One individual pays for the water and sells it to neighbours to cover costs. City Health encourages communities to pay for standpipes. This is arranged through a health committee, but in practice the person who collects the money for the standpipe often absconds, the water is cut off and the process has to start again.

O Progress in Service Provision cn Progress in both water and electricity provision has been slow compared

w to demand for these services and the high rates of urbanisation. Little

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progress appears to have been made in informal settlements, with the 6

upgrading of services focused on the formal townships (Table 1). a w cn

Electrification seems to have proceeded somewhat faster than water supply, with 29% of the informal population living in settlements in which at least some electrification has occurred, compared to 19% who live in areas in which there has been some improvement in water supply.

From an examination of planned developments it appears that the electricity providers have developed comprehensive development programmes, with Durban Electricity targeting an expenditure of some R316 million for provision between 1993 and 1996. Nonetheless, there are dismally low incidences of electricity connection and water provision in informal settlements.

A Directory of Socio-Economic Projects, compiled by the Development Bank of Southern Africa in October 1993, outlines funding allocations by 10 of the most prominent funders in the DFR. It reveals that a number of informal areas are untouched in terms of funding for infrastructural, housing or site development.

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A total of R530 million has been allocated to informal areas, less than a fifth of the total value of all DFR projects. Expenditure on housing and roads consumes the largest portion of project value in informal

{ iij areas, while minimal spending is planned for electricity and refuse removal. Comparatively low estimated expenditure on water and sanitation is also worrying in terms of the health of residents and the need for clean water and solid waste disposal. Funding priorities need to be revisited. \

I PROBLEMS WITH SERVICE PROVISION I

Pre-paid meters and communal standpipes or water kiosks have facilitated a dramatic improvement in the potential of service providers to meet energy and water needs. It might have been anticipated that the introduction of these methods of service provision would have been supported by all those that they were intended to serve.

But this has not always been the case and in extreme circumstances, standpipes have been destroyed by host communities and Eskom officials have been assaulted. In many cases the beneficiaries have continued to complain about the way these s e ~ c e s are operated. Thus apparently good solutions to major developmental problems were poorly implemented.

At the core of the problem are three issues:

The absence of interaction between the supplier and the ultimate consumer, the household

@ The absence of meaningful consultation between the supplier and the host community

@ The absence of supporting local infrastructure.

O Lack of Supplier and Consumer Interaction

Eskom and Durban Electricity differ substantially in their approach to electrification. In the case of Eskom, communities are identified, plans are drawn up on how targeted communities are to be connected to the national grid, and either Eskom or sub-contractors lay the infrastructure. All houses in the community receive an application form which has to be submitted with a small deposit. The application is discussed with a household member, although not necessarily with the principle energy or domestic decision maker.

This is a problem since research has shown that in some instances the W J

male head of a household that cannot afford to 'connect' does so because w 0

he feels the opportunity might not arise again. This results either in borrowing, digging into savings or cutting back on other essential

5 expenditure. Because the wrong household member was consulted, the

a w

future use of electricity is restricted or there is a long time lag taken to cO shift from non-electrical energy sources.

Durban Electricity does not have an effective policy of mass electrification, limiting its expansion to meeting the demand raised by individual potential subscribers. The connection fee is higher than that of Eskom's, but the recipient is also given a high energy using appliance, and research has found that this is favourably received.

The problem with the Durban Electricity approach is that connection time often exceeds three months, frustrating new consumers and causing poor relations with the authority. A bigger problem lies in the fact that potential subscribers located outside the current grid are precluded from electrifying their homes. This impacts on half of Durban's population and certainly on the vast majority of informal settlers.

Umgeni Water and Durban Water and Waste have recently expanded their operations into areas which have historically not been serviced by

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reticulated water. Emphasis has shifted from merely supplying access via a communal system to also attempting to facilitate individual household connections. The application system is similar to electricity supply and consequently encompasses some of its faults.

However, the problem of individual household reticulation lies in the type of payment and cost recovery methods. In most of the informal areas a connection fee of R . 0 0 plus an extra cost per meter of pipe after a certain length has to be paid by the potential consumer. In addition, a deposit of R50 is required as an advance against future non-payment. Although there is nothing inherently wrong in requesting a modest connection fee and deposit, at R250 this may exclude poorer households.

It is worth noting that although electrical connections cost three times more than water connections and electricity tariffs are high, greater affordability of electricity has been achieved by discounting cost recovery over eight years or more. A lower connection fee and longer cost recovery period could go a long way towards meeting existing water demand among low income communities.

The entire concept of 'user pays' needs to be examined more carefully to ensure that the poor are not being disproportionately penalised in gaining access to one of the most basic needs - adequate, clean water for drinking, cooking and washing. Also, a novel idea about how households could pay for water connection - for example by a type of hire purchase system - has not been thoroughly investigated.

The most common complaint emanating from recently electrified and water supplied communities is about the location of the delivery point of the s e ~ c e . In the case of electricity, the dispensing unit has often been located in a very inappropriate place, resulting in the inefficient and limited use of electricity.

The location of validation points is also sometimes totally inappropriate. Costs incurred in accessing distant validation points is money which could have been spent on the electrical service being supplied. Day operating times at the validation points also cause problems since they are closed at the times when employed people are able to purchase cards.

Households may run out of electricity simply because a card has not been bought, encouraging households to retain non-electrical appliances and postponing the move towards total reliance on electricity.

The location of standpipes can also be problematic. In some cases standpipes are spread too thinly or are badly located, and this is a significant factor in creating tensions within communities. A system of training local water committee members in the complexities of water supply, and of paying them for their time, could result in better location of standpipes and pre-empting of potential problems.

0 Lack of Supplier and Community Interaction

Lack of interaction between the electricity supplier and the host community has resulted in dissatisfaction and tension around three major issues.

The first is the non-use of available local labour for infrastructural construction. Unemployment levels among economically active people in settlements range between 40% and 70%, yet when an infrastructural network is provided in these areas labour is imported from outside, causing great resentment. Where possible local labour should be used.

The second issue is the perceived poor routing of infrastructure. There have been cases where infrastructure has been laid out in a way that does not benefit the whole area, mainly because of a combination of political expedience and an attempt to reduce costs. This is shortsighted since access to resources by the entire community raises higher revenues to offset higher installation costs, and economies of scale are lost.

Worse, perceived policies of exclusion lead to apathy at best and antagonism or destruction of the facility at worst. Also, sometimes electricity and water is supplied to a community but not to public services centres such as schools and clinics. This is no longer politically acceptable.

The third major issue is that of ownership and control of infrastructural resources. Stavrou points out that international experience shows that where the ownership of a good or service is vested in the hands of beneficiaries, the likelihood of levels of demand meeting the availability of supply increases, optimising the usage factor. More important is that maintenance costs are also minimised.

Too often in the past strong men or groups have taken control of a service and either charged a surplus or denied it to parts of the community. This has occurred with the full knowledge of the supply authority, which indirectly relies on these forces to maintain the system. Clearly such a situation is unacceptable.

j ! tl Lack o f Supporting Infrastructure and Linkages j j

DRA research has shown that lack of house wiring and plumbing enormously limits both electricity and water consumption. The extension of wiring into a second room increases consumption by a fifth, and into a third room by a similar amount again. The water consumption of households with reticulated water is three to four times that of households that collect water from a standpipe or a natural source.

More importantly, lack of wiring and plumbing results in households being trapped in a way of life that is still reliant on alternate energy and water sources. Injuries resulting from non-electrical energy fuels and diseases emanating from poor water constitute the majority of all household accidents and medical ailments. The costs incurred by both the inhabitants and the health sector are high, and should be taken into account by electricity and water utilities.

Also, the introduction of affordable electricity and water has not been accompanied by the introduction of appropriate and affordable appliances, limiting overall demand for the services. Electricity and water suppliers need to ensure that the correct appliances are available to their consumers, and to implement interventionist strategies to create an appliance, installation and repair sector. Financial institutions should introduce hire purchase systems that are both consumer friendly and affordable.

SOCIAL IMPACT OF SERVICE PROVISION

Where basic needs are not met, the provision of services becomes the central issue for survival of the community. Annecke has shown that the situation in informal settlements without service provision is characterised by:

Highly restricted access to water and energy in most cases, with both services being acquired largely through informal sector enterprises

IW High expenditure on water and energy, which is made on a daily basis due to a chronic shortage of income

~ET Meeting energy and water needs is a time consuming and laborious task, impacting heavily upon women

Using alternative energy water sources is also hazardous in terms of the risk of disease and injury, with children particularly vulnerable

- Electricity is perceived to be a cheaper source of energy, and water is perceived to be a right.

Where provision exists in the DFR, more than two thirds of newly electrified households use a combination of electricity and other sources of energy including paraffin, gas, candles, wood and coal. DRA research indicated the other forms of energy were usually resorted to when electricity ran out, or when people did not own the appropriate appliances. The second major reason was to save electricity. Despite this electricity is still widely regarded as being affordable.

Over half of surveyed households first electrified only the kitchen, while 27% of households electrified the entire home. Within six months of electrification, more than half of the respondents had a refrigerator, a television, a radio-hi-fi, an iron and a hotplate. The provision of electricity only encourages some 10% of households to start a small business.

Settlements in which services have been provided are characterised by:

Mixed energy use, which persists for more than two years after connections are made

Expenditure on energy increases after electrification, but households balance higher spending by using electricity in combination with other fuels. In other words, households budget to run out of electricity

Appliance ownership is confined to less sophisticated appliances, with the exception of television sets - The major benefit of electricity is perceived to be its convenience as an energy source

The perceived benefits of the water service are that the water is clean.

CONCLUSION

Lack of consultation between supply authorities and consumers has led to a lower than expected usage of both electricity and water at the household level. Lack of interaction between supply authorities and communities has resulted in a less than endearing attitude among communities towards the suppliers, and in some case resistance towards the delivered product. A lack of attempts to structure services into a larger infrastructural framework by creating local supporting infrastructure has meant that there has been less than expected use of senices.

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In a nutshell, existing surplus electricity and water supply has not met the available demand, even though demand has remained unchanged or increased. Appropriate technological solutions have failed to meet the I

development challenge because they were inappropriately implemented. Finally, mass electrification and water reticulation have to be seen within the context of their social and economic benefits.

Since the use of services is affected by income it is essential that strategies for 'energy poverty' in urbanising areas take into account low income women as well as middle class families. The fundamental feature of planning for the wider distribution of energy, water and other services should be that they are sustainable. Sustainability can only be created through a n interactive process between the supplier, the poor and development of the natural environment.

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REFERENCES Annecke W (1993) 'We are so Poor', unpublished masters thesis, University of Natal, Durban.

Bekker S (1992) 'The Development of Informal Settlements in KwaZulu-Natal: Some Ideas on the Scope and Nature of the Challenge', unpublished paper, Centre for Social and Development Studies, University of Natal, Durban.

Davies Bristow and Associates (199 1) 'Black Townships of KwaZulu-Natal', Davies Bristow and Associates, Durban.

Data Research Africa (1992) 'A Study of Energy Needs in KwaZulu', DRA, Durban.

DRA (1993a) 'Durban Electricity: Consumer Perception Survey', DRA, Durban.

DRA (1993b) 'Eskom Post-Electrified Area Research - Esikhaweni, Loskop, Madadeni/Osimeni and Turton', DRA, Durban.

George MF (1990) 'A Factual Update on the Durban Functional Region', The Inkatha Institute of South Africa. Durban.

Harrison P and Smit DP (1992) 'Strategic Planning for the Proposed Informal Settlements Unit', Seneque Smit and Associates, Durban.

Kaye B (1993) The Electricity Sector within Region E', report to the study on Economic Development Strategies for Region E, Durban.

Macintosh A (1986) 'Urban Informal Settlements in KwaZulu-Natal', Urban Foundation, Durban.

Smit DP and Todes A (1993) 'Region E: Urbanisation Study', Seneque Smit and Associates, Durban.

Smith G (1993) 'An Analysis of the Provision of Physical Infrastructure and Delivery of Services in Region E', Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick, Durban.

Stavrou SE (1992) 'Electriijmg, the Nation', Indicator SA, Vol 9 No 2, Durban.

Sutcliffe M (1989) 'Informal Settlements in KwaZulu-Natal', Department of Town Planning, University of Natal, Durban.