Water service delivery is in crisis. In rural and other marginalised areas, community-municipality partnership is a vital -- and overlooked -- part of the solution.

South Africa is at a critical juncture when it comes to water service delivery, with a suite of new interventions being rolled out by the national government. Yet rural communities, which bear the brunt of the water crisis, continue to be sidelined.

In recent weeks, the South African Human Rights Commission called for water outages to be declared a national disaster. President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his State of the Nation Address, committed to establishing a National Water Crisis Committee. The Water Services Amendment Bill, which seeks to professionalise service delivery through a new licensing scheme and enhance ministerial oversight mechanisms, is currently being considered by Parliament.

Water was spotlighted in Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's Budget Speech, which confirmed a R27.7-billion medium-term allocation for a performance-based grant for metros to improve their water and electricity services.

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This political prioritisation is amply justified -- and arguably overdue. Three decades into SA's democracy, a gulf remains between the constitutional aspiration that everyone should have access to water and the lived realities of millions, especially residents of informal settlements and former homelands.

Municipalities -- with whom primary responsibility for water service delivery lies -- are in a dire state. Just <a...