Fostering sustainable domestic water debt management in Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality

Abstract

Non-payment for water and services consumed is a persistent problem among South Africa’s local municipalities. The primary research question addressed is – “what needs to be done to improve the payment of water bills by households and to minimise loss through the wastage of water”? The study was founded on the theory of constraints (TOC) which was propounded by Eliyahu Goldratt in 1979. It followed a mixed-method approach and it adopted descriptive and interpretive research designs. The population of the study comprised two categories namely residents that paid for water supplied (Category 1) and municipal officials in the departments of water and sanitation (Category 2). Convenience and snowball sampling were used to select 400 and three participants from population Categories 1 and 2 respectively. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the population Category 1 while a semi-structured interview guide was used to collect data from the population Category 2. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) statistical software was used to analyse the quantitative data while the qualitative data was thematically analysed. The results were described in the narrative and displayed in charts, figures, and tables. Based on the research questions, several inferences were made, and recommendations were suggested. The recommendations suggested for each secondary research question address the primary research question of the study. Therefore, the aim of the study was achieved.