Municipal management and geo-hydrological aspects of importance in the potable water supply of Lindley
Abstract
When the South African Government in 1998 re-demarcated its 283 municipalities so
that they completely cover the country in a “wall-to-wall” manner, their main focus was
on growing local economies and maintaining the provision of an increased number of
diverse and more complex basic municipal services to new geographical areas consisting
of millions of citizens who might previously had been neglected.
In most of the instances the newly established and merged municipalities were
demarcated according to geographical aspects inherited from the previous political
dispensation, historical municipal areas and magisterial district farm names. The fact that
these municipal government jurisdictions for the purpose of improving co-operative
municipal- and integrated water resources management (IWRM), in most instances do
not correspond with environmental and physical land features such as the demarcated
surface water (rivers) drainage regions’ boundaries, could lead to the ineffective,
inefficient and non-economic municipal management of water, sanitation and
environmental services.
The aforementioned is a case with reference to water services management in the Free
State Province town of Lindley located in the Vals River catchment and the Nketoana
Local Municipality’s area of jurisdiction.
An extensive literature review, the use and study of geographic tools such as maps, orthophotos
and information data bases, as well as two field visits to the area, enabled the
researchers to identify the essential geographical, geo-hydrological and municipal
management aspects of importance for the potable water service providers and managers
in the Lindley municipal area.
The researchers argue that effective trans-boundary municipal management through
simunye-type co-operative governance and IWRM must be facilitated in the Vals River
surface water catchment between the respective local- and district municipalities for the
benefit of the Lindley, Arlington, Steynsrus and Kroonstad communities.