Steyn Nicolene Renske
South African Research Chair in Cities, Law and Environmental Sustainability, the Faculty of Law of the North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa.
Urban Forum (Johannesbg). 2022;33(3):349-366. doi: 10.1007/s12132-021-09456-2. Epub 2022 Jan 30.
This article investigates the existing legal responses to the challenge of insufficient data on water service delivery in cities. The article finds that no explicit duty exists for cities to collect the data or information that they are regularly required to provide. While such a duty may be implied from Sect. 69 of the Water Services Act 108 of 1997, there is no clear indication of what information cities would need to provide. Furthermore, an extensive analysis of the current national systems of information operated by the Department of Water and Sanitation reveals that there are numerous and significant issues on these databases, especially concerning the quality, integrity, and timeliness of the data. Finally, the article proposes that due to the unique position of cities concerning the provision of water services, and the need for complete and reliable data, the law should emphasise cities' role in the collection of data.
本文探讨了针对城市供水服务数据不足这一挑战现有的法律应对措施。文章发现，城市并无明确义务去收集那些它们经常被要求提供的数据或信息。虽然1997年第108号《供水服务法》第69条可能暗示了这样一项义务，但对于城市需要提供哪些信息并无明确说明。此外，对水与卫生设施部目前运营的国家信息系统进行的广泛分析表明，这些数据库存在诸多重大问题，尤其是在数据的质量、完整性和及时性方面。最后，文章提出，鉴于城市在供水服务提供方面的独特地位以及对完整可靠数据的需求，法律应强调城市在数据收集方面的作用。
