# Strategic Framework for Water and Sanitation Services

An episode of [The Midday Report with Mandy Wiener](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1074292047), 27 Oct 2026, 5:24.

Audio: https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/5dcefa8e-00a9-4595-8ce1-a4ab0080f142/fe8d1a9a-a053-424d-9f40-a57500d5394b/b6361c01-259d-4410-977b-b4f000b23a73/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=18146681-7843-46cf-9a9c-a57500d59fe7

Mandy Wiener speaks to Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Dr Jack Bloom about the draft of the Strategic Framework for Water and Sanitation Services. The Midday Report with Mandy Wiener is 702 and CapeTalk’s flagship news show, your hour of essential news radio. The show is podcasted every weekday, allowing you to catch up with a 60-minute weekday wrap of the day's main news. It's packed with fast-paced interviews with the day’s newsmakers, as well as those who can make sense of the news and explain what's happening in your world. All the interviews are podcasted for you to catch up and listen to. Thank you for listening to this podcast of The Midday Report Listen live on weekdays between 12:00 and 13:00 (SA Time) to The Midday Report broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj and on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from The Midday Report go to https://buff.ly/BTGmL9H and find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/LcbDdFI Subscribe to the 702 and CapeTalk daily and weekly newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfetc Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702 CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Can 702 please confirm if this is legit, please? And
[0:03] Speaker 1: it's an urgent notice which tells residents that Joburg Water
[0:07] Speaker 1: has issued a precautionary advisory regarding potential water contamination. It's
[0:12] Speaker 1: not true. We're going to speak to Joburg Water about this.
[0:17] Speaker 1: And just to clarify, it's not true. It's gone viral.
[0:21] Speaker 1: There is no urgent notice from Joburg Water about that.
[0:25] Speaker 1: So just to respond to that, we'll talk about that shortly.
[0:28] Speaker 1: Staying on the topic of water, the Department of Water
[0:30] Speaker 1: and Sanitation is hosting a public consultation on the review
[0:35] Speaker 1: of the strategic framework for water and sanitation services. And
[0:39] Speaker 1: this is aimed at strengthening service delivery across the country. Dr.
[0:43] Speaker 1: Jack Bloom is the Deputy Minister for Water and Sanitation.
[0:47] Speaker 1: Deputy Minister, who I've been calling Jack for 30 years.
[0:51] Speaker 1: But Deputy Minister now, thank you very much for your time.
[0:54] Speaker 2: Good afternoon. Good to be with you, Mandy.
[0:57] Speaker 1: So firstly, what is the strategic framework for water and
[1:02] Speaker 1: sanitation services?
[1:04] Speaker 2: Well, it's an update from the strategic framework which was
[1:07] Speaker 2: first launched in 2003 and that looked at really basic
[1:14] Speaker 2: access after the apartheid years and it needs to be
[1:18] Speaker 2: modernized and upgraded and we need to review what targets
[1:22] Speaker 2: have still not been achieved and what we can do
[1:25] Speaker 2: to make sure that everybody has clean water in their taps. So,
[1:29] Speaker 2: you know, the first draft concentrate on access, having a tap.
[1:34] Speaker 2: But now we need to look at, you know, what's
[1:36] Speaker 2: coming out of your tap. If it's coming out of
[1:38] Speaker 2: your tap regularly, is it reliable and is it clean
[1:41] Speaker 2: and drinkable? And there's many other aspects there, bringing in
[1:46] Speaker 2: new technology, monitoring and trying to deal with our water
[1:51] Speaker 2: and sanitation problems in a structured way.
[1:55] Speaker 1: The draft framework looks at several priority areas such as sanitation, gender,
[2:01] Speaker 1: climate change, environmental sustainability. Can you give us a broad
[2:06] Speaker 1: overview of what some of these are and what's important
[2:11] Speaker 1: for people to know?
[2:13] Speaker 2: Well, I think it's important to know that we're looking
[2:15] Speaker 2: at a new model today. how water is provided, and
[2:21] Speaker 2: that we're separating it from local authorities if they're not
[2:28] Speaker 2: able to do the job. So they're looking at a
[2:31] Speaker 2: model where money is ring-fenced, that the money that should
[2:35] Speaker 2: be going to water infrastructure actually goes to water infrastructure.
[2:39] Speaker 2: You know, the money is actually there if we just
[2:42] Speaker 2: ring-fence it and use it to invest in our parts. Now,
[2:47] Speaker 2: it also looks at non-revenue water. You know, this is
[2:50] Speaker 2: water that isn't paid for, it goes lost, and much
[2:53] Speaker 2: of it is leaking from our pipes. And the goal
[2:57] Speaker 2: is to bring that to below 25% by 2035. At
[3:01] Speaker 2: the moment, nearly half our water is unaccounted for, really.
[3:06] Speaker 1: How much impact does the public consultation process have on
[3:09] Speaker 1: the ultimate outcome?
[3:12] Speaker 2: Well, we're going through all the provinces and we're listening
[3:17] Speaker 2: carefully to what people have to say and hopefully incorporate
[3:22] Speaker 2: comments so that it's a better document. But I can
[3:24] Speaker 2: say to you that it's very strong on monitoring and
[3:28] Speaker 2: accountability and involving civil society. So it's big on partnerships
[3:33] Speaker 2: because we've got to get through this together. We have
[3:36] Speaker 2: a massive water and sanitation project. problem. We've got to
[3:39] Speaker 2: make sure that the money is effectively spent and there
[3:43] Speaker 2: are some firm targets. One of the things is that
[3:45] Speaker 2: there's been a problem that we don't budget for operation
[3:49] Speaker 2: and maintenance. So we hand over a beautiful new water
[3:53] Speaker 2: plant or wastewater treatment facility and then you come back
[3:56] Speaker 2: and you find it's broken because they haven't done the maintenance.
[3:59] Speaker 2: So that's now becoming mandatory. becoming mandatory that you in
[4:03] Speaker 2: your budget you have operation and maintenance so that we
[4:07] Speaker 2: keep our facilities working and I think that'll make a
[4:09] Speaker 2: big difference actually.
[4:11] Speaker 1: You'll know from decades of being in opposition that it's
[4:14] Speaker 1: great to have a good plan and a good plan
[4:16] Speaker 1: can be a good plan but it comes down to
[4:17] Speaker 1: implementation how confident are you about implementing?
[4:21] Speaker 2: Well I think implementation is everything but we're improving our
[4:26] Speaker 2: ability to intervene you know where water authorities are not
[4:31] Speaker 2: doing the job. We step in as we've stepped in
[4:34] Speaker 2: with Mphaleni, that's the Baal area, which really has not
[4:38] Speaker 2: proved capable of providing decent water and sanitation and set
[4:42] Speaker 2: up a special purpose vehicle there. And that sort of partnership,
[4:48] Speaker 2: separating who is legally responsible for providing water and who
[4:52] Speaker 2: actually provides the water. I think if we use that framework,
[4:55] Speaker 2: they call it the utility model, make sure that water
[4:59] Speaker 2: revenue is ring-fenced and spent properly, and we've got to
[5:03] Speaker 2: get rid of corruption and inefficiency. If we do that,
[5:07] Speaker 2: I think we really can make a lot of progress
[5:09] Speaker 2: in solving our water and sanitation problems. Dr.
[5:13] Speaker 1: Jack Bloom, Deputy Minister for Water and Sanitation, thank you
[5:16] Speaker 1: very much for your time speaking to us there about
[5:19] Speaker 1: the review of the strategic framework for water and sanitation services.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.