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The Municipal Benchmarking Initiative (MBI) has made significant strides in improving water management at the local level since its establishment in 2011.

“The MBI signifies the right direction when it comes to improving water services delivery in South Africa. It is an innovative and inclusive approach to tackling service delivery issues. It has also established important tools for change,” said South African Local Government Association (Salga) national executive committee member, Cllr Pinky Moloi.

In April 2011, Salga in partnership with the Water Research Commission (WRC) and the institution of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa (IMESA) initiated the water services benchmarking in South Africa through the launch of the national MBI for Water Services.

Six key pillars of the MBI are:

· Water conservation and demand management

· Human resources and skills development

· Service delivery and backlog eradication

· Operational management and maintenance

· Product quality and financial management

“The MBI exemplifies a pragmatic approach to benchmarking, which has effectively addressed the current situation and designed an approach that takes into consideration varying circumstances of different municipalities.

“It has successfully encouraged participation from all municipalities and by allowing municipalities a degree choice on their level of participation and which performance indicators they monitor. As Salga, we’ve effectively ensured that the initiative was inclusive and could be adapted to meet the needs of each municipality stakeholder,” Moloi told reporters on Tuesday.

Moloi, who is also the Executive mayor of Dr Kaunda District Municipality, said the MBI is based on the mantra of ‘for municipalities, by municipalities to the benefit of communities’.

She said to quantitatively measure performance and monitors the areas in which particular municipalities were succeeding or falling short, a web-based data capturing system called munibench has been introduced.

According to Moloi, the strength of MBI lies in its multi-faceted approach to knowledge sharing and education.

“Through this exchange between stakeholders from across the spectrum, all those involved in municipal water affairs can become more informed and the MBI can be increasingly relevant and context sensitive in the future.”

Using technology, Salga has ensured that the MBI is transparent and all municipalities are able to access the necessary information.

Salga chief executive Xolile George said: “The MBI aims to improve effectiveness in water service delivery through comparative performance benchmarking and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing.

“We will also vigorously market our initiative to external stakeholders both private and public with a view to sharing ideas and continuously improving water services performance.”

Executive Manager: Water Use and Waste Management at the Water Research Commission, Jay Bhagwan, said: “After years of pursuing benchmarking in the water services sector in South Africa, it makes me proud of the progress and innovations achieved to date.” - SAnews.gov.za