New Municipal Strategic Self-Assessment of Water Services (MuSSA) Launched

Since 2005, Department of Water affairs (DWA): Water Services – Planning and Information has also conducted a “Strategic Gap Analysis of Water Services” survey (also known as the “Strategic Self-Assessment (SSA)” survey) at all WSAs in South Africa. To-date, this survey has been completed on-line using the electronic Water Quality Management System (eWQMS), and aims to generate a sustainability risk profile which assists WSAs to identify any gaps in ensuring effective and sustainable municipal water services.

Although some modifications and enhancements have been made, the survey has largely remained unchanged for a 5 year period. During this period, a number of additional national water sector developments and associated revised needs have surfaced, including for example, Blue Drop and Green Drop Certification, increased focus on Asset Management, Water Demand Management, Integrated Water Management, Water Safety Planning, etc. Considering this, a revised approach was required. The revised “Municipal Strategic Self-Assessment of Water Services (MuSSA)” survey approach aims to consider the following “Business Health” aspects, namely: (i) Purpose, (ii) People and (iii) Processes, and considers the following topics:

• Water Services Planning
• Management Skill Level (Technical)
• Staff Skill Levels (Technical)
• Technical Staff Capacity (Numbers)
• Water Resource Management (WRM)
• Water Conservation & Demand Management (WCDM)
• Drinking Water Safety & Blue Drop Status
• Wastewater/Environmental Safety & Green Drop Status
• Infrastructure Asset Management (IAM)
• Operation & Maintenance of Assets
• Financial Management
• Revenue Collection
• Information Management
• Organisational Performance Monitoring
• Water Service Quality
• Customer Care (CRM)

Key considerations of the revised approach are as follows:
• Simpler questions
• 70% reduction in questions (16 topics and 5 questions per topic = total of 80 questions)
• Quicker updating and easier completion of questionnaire
• No repetition of data/info requests available elsewhere
• More vulnerability oriented
• More management friendly looking at ‘essence’ to provide strategic flags (vs. deep technical detail, which is now captured via other programs)
• Information gathered provides an indication of the overall business health of WSAs, and assists DWA to identify critical municipal areas that require support. This is important considering that the data and information informs the National Turnaround Strategy for Local Government.

As most WSAs are currently focused on fulfilling Blue Drop and Green Drop Assessment requirements, Emanti will be assisting WSAs (on behalf of DWA) with completing the “Municipal Strategic Self-Assessment of Water Services (MuSSA)” survey. Please do not hesitate to contact the Emanti team should you have queries regarding the updating of the MuSSA.