Planning for Effective and Sustainable Water Access and Provision in QwaQwa Through the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

AbstractQwaQwa is a former Bantustan, which consisted of 13 sections of the Phuthaditjhaba Township and 99 surrounding villages. On 1 January 2016, the Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality reported that the Fika Patso Dam, which supplies the majority of water to QwaQwa, had insufficient water, subsequently shutting it down. The community of QwaQwa had reportedly been struggling to access drinking water since 2016, which forced them to collect water from provisional or improvised municipal water tankers. This chapter documents the lived experiences of 11 communities in the greater QwaQwa area, highlighting their struggle to access adequate drinking water. The chapter proposes planning interventions for effective and sustainable water access and provision in QwaQwa. It also looks at Sustainable Development Goals 6 and 11 to address policy issues toward effective and sustainable water provision in QwaQwa. The study employed an exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach. The qualitative method administered 10 semi-structured interviews with key informants (municipal officials and political leaders) and three households for 326 min in total. A total of 571 household questionnaires were administered for quantitative data collection. Discourse and thematic methods were used for the qualitative data analysis, and descriptive and inferential statistics for the quantitative data analysis. The study established that post-apartheid’s ineffective planning for water access in QwaQwa, significantly and negatively affected the greater QwaQwa community, resulting in the local communities having to travel long distances to collect water. It took more time to collect water, while the water quantity decreased with an increased cost of accessing water. The misfortune of the QwaQwa water crisis presents a challenge for the attainment of UN Sustainable Development Goals 6 and 11 that require basic service provision and making cities more inclusive by the municipality.