Service Level Agreements and Guarantees

The Water Supply and Sanitation Act No. 28 of 1997 requires water supply and sanitation (WSS) service providers to ensure efficient, affordable and sustainable services within their service areas. Therefore, NWASCO requires WSS service providers to guarantee their customers a certain and defined level of service for a specified price, thus ensuring “value for money”, in a Service Level Guarantee (SLG). The SLGs are scrutinised and approved by NWASCO and are required to be displayed at all customer service points for public and consumer reference. Customers may use these SLGs as a basis for airing their complaints.

NWASCO monitors the implementation and advancements of SLGs against formulated targets called Minimum Service Level (MSL) guidelines. MSLs are simply standards which define the acceptable minimum level of service which providers must achieve over a specified timeframe. Where the WSS service providers are not meeting the MSLs, they are required to propose three year progressive movements towards meeting the set targets in an agreement signed with NWASCO called a Service Level Agreement (SLA).

The Minimum Service Levels are measured by ten identified service indicators as indicated below:

	SERVICE INDICATOR	MEASUREMENT
SI 1	Coverage of the Service Area	Percentage of population served with drinking water/adequate sanitation services.
SI 2	Drinking Water Quality	Tests carried out and test results within the national standards for drinking water and other requirements stipulated in the NWASCO water quality monitoring guidelines.
SI 3	Service Hours	Water supply hours per day and office opening hours per week to enable attendance to customers.
SI 4	Billing for Services	Meter reading and billing cycles and conditions for payment of bills by customers.
SI 5	Client Contacts	Response time to client complaints and any other requests from customers.
SI 6	Interruption of Water Supply and Blockage of Sewer	Percentage of clients subjected to unplanned interruption of water supply or blockage of sewers.
SI 7	Pressure in the Network and Minimum Flow Rate at the Customer Point for Water Supply	Minimum flow rate of seven (7) litres/min at customer connection.
SI 8	Unjustified Disconnections	Percentage of customers subjected to unjustified disconnections in a year (maximum of 0.2% customers).
SI 9	Sewage Flooding	Percentage of customers subjected to sewage flooding in a period (maximum of 0.5% customers).
SI 10	Quality of Discharged Sewer	Chemical and bacteriological parameters in accordance with ZEMA regulations.