Yei Town Water & Sanitation Services Ltd (YTWSS)
History
In 2010 Yei was selected to receive support from the German Government to improve the water supply and sanitation situation in Yei Town by a) setting up a commercially operating water utility and b) implementing a phased investment programme to extend existing water supply and sanitation infrastructure. Germany Government has supported the water sector in South Sudan since 2006 through technical and financial cooperation, mainly through GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) and KfW (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau).
Under the “Development of the Urban Water and Sanitation Sector in South Sudan” programme GIZ supported the Government of South Sudan to set up Yei Town Water and Sanitation Services (YTWSS) Limited and provided technical assistance and capacity development measures to create the required preconditions for infrastructure investment measures financed by KfW. The official registration of YTWSS and the approval of a qualified staffing scheme with description of tasks for each position (job descriptions) were besides others set as preconditions for the investments into infrastructure through the German government.
Yei Town Water and Sanitation Services (YTWSS) Limited was established with support of GIZ in 2012 as the first commercially managed water and sanitation service provider in South Sudan. YTWSS is a private company incorporated under the company’s act of 2003 of the laws of South Sudan and limited by shares owned by Yei River County (99%) and Yei Town Council (1%). YTWSS was incorporated on 12th April 2012 to operate as an independent water utility to render services on behalf of the Government of Yei River County with the following main objectives:
- to provide water supply and sanitation services within Yei Town;
- to develop and manage necessary water resources to secure urban water supply in Yei Town;
- to provide a constant and reliable supply of potable water for commercial, industrial and domestic purposes within Yei Town;
- to provide sanitation services within Yei Town.
The Company started its operations on 15th October 2012 with eight members of staff (1 Managing Director, 1 Finance and Admin Officer, 1 Plumber, 2 Guards, 2 Drivers and 1 Cleaner with support from GIZ on behalf of the German Development Corporation.
Currently, the company has 19 staffs ( 1 Managing Director, 1 Finance & Admin Officer, 1 Assistant Finance & Admin Officer, 4 Plumbers, 3 Drivers, 3 Assistant Drivers, 4 Guards, 2 Cleaners and 6 Casual Workers.
The Company’s office is located next to the Department of Physical Infrastructure (DOPI) offices, opposite Yei Electric Cooperative (YECO) offices in Yei Town.
Besides some initial infrastructure investments mainly financed by GIZ and KfW the first major infrastructure programme financed by KfW was finalised and the infrastructure handed over to YTWSS in April 2017. A follow-up phase of the infrastructure programme was initially planned but it remains unclear to which extend funds will be released under the current political and economic situation in South Sudan. However, independent from the decisions to be taken at the political level, to be eligible for additional infrastructure investments financed by the German government, YTWSS would need to prove that it can operate its infrastructure in a sustainable and efficient manner on a cost covering basis.
The current supply concept of YTWSS includes water being supplied through kiosks and a limited number of domestic, commercial and institutional connections connected to a piped water supply network as well as water tankers and mobile kiosks. The utility initially was operating a basic water supply scheme, which was rehabilitated and extended over the last years (Phase 2 investments financed by KfW Development Bank) increasing the production capacity from 320 m³/d to 1,820 m³/d. The investments were finally handed over in April 2017. Six emmergency kiosks were constructed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The extended and improved water supply system in Yei operated by YTWSS is consisting of:
- Five (5) boreholes (2 old and 3 new ones) with a total production capacity of 1.820 m³
- 50 km water supply network
- 42 kiosks (11 old, 25 new ones and 6 emmergency Kiosk during COVID-19 and out of the 25 new ones 3 could not be finalised / connected to the distribution network due to security reasons)
- One (1) tanker filling station
- Three (3) water tankers (1 with 5 m³ and 2 with 8 m³)
- Six (6) bowers/trailers to be operated as mobile kiosks (3 with 2 m³ and 3 with 6 m³)
- 28 domestic households connection.
- 17 institutional connections (Yei Civil Hospital, Governor’s office, Commissioner’s office, police, 2 x prison, local government, Town Council Yei, Immanuel PS, Yei Day Sec School, Kinji PS, Emmanuel Sec School, Royal PS, Light House Accademy, Royal PS-Jigomoni, YTWSS Office, Newtech Office, NRA Office )
- Three commercial connection (J&P Hotel, Conserves Guest House and Referendum Guest House)
- One Industrial connection ( Carnak Factory South Sudan)
- Two (2) public toilets ( Freedom Square and Mahad Market)
Despite the signing of the agreement on the resolution of the conflict in August 2015, violence continues to affect civilians in Central Equatoria and Yei in particular. The population of Yei decreased drastically and almost halved
Based on its production capacity and the existing infrastructure YTWSS would be able to provide safe water 5 to 7 days per week to 48,000 people. However, at the moment it is estimated that about approx. 31,000 people depend on the water supplied by YTWSS (water supply coverage of 18 %). The water tankers and bowsers supply safe water to the areas not covered by the distribution network. Tankers and mobile kiosks operate from Monday to Friday (5 days per week). At the moment it is estimated that YTWSS only utilises about 60 % of its production capacity due to the low demand during the raining seasons as some of the population fetches water from other sources.
The overall economic situation in Yei has result in a massive decreased demand of water over the last months. Due to the lack of fuel storage facilities and insufficient funds to procure large quantities of diesel from outside Yei for its operations to meet the production capacity.
As a result of the deteriorating economic situation in the country, YTWSS struggling to operate its infrastructure in a efficient and safe manner. In addition to the economic situation, fuel prices, chemicals and water reagents keeps increasing affecting the planned budget of YTWSS.
GIZ continues to support YTWSS with the implementation of Hybrid power solar system installed in the main office and at the production site of Giru to reduce the cost of fuel for water production.
OXFAM was contracted to implement the project of Hybrid solar pumping system and installation of 27 prepaid water meters at the water kiosks and train the technicain and management to handle and sustain the utility to continue with its operations though GIZ prepare to pull out by 2024.
Additional investment from KFW through UNICEF South Sudan has kick off to expand the water network supply and construction of 23 new water kiosks and rehabilitation of Luzira and Gabat bore hole with solar pump and two water mini solar pumps. Construction of water labarotory and office space for the Newtech consultants has been finished.
The budget and tariff proposal for 2022 were prepared together with the management of YTWSS and a representative of the Board of Directors (Board Chairman).
They take into account the current political and economic situation in Yei and South Sudan in general. The objective for YTWSS remains to supply water to as many people as possible residing in Yei taking the current framework conditions into account and use the new infrastructure as efficient as possible.
The original objective of full operational cost recovery with the investments being completed will not be achieved. For 2022 the objective of the tariff adjustment is to aim at covering production cost and operational cost for the sustainability.
For the time being, it is assumed that the resulting deficit will be covered by financial support provided by GIZ. Only because of the continuous support of GIZ the utility has been able to pay its staff, restore its production capacity and continue to supply water to the population in Yei.
In 2019, 2020 and 2021 YTWSS was able to cover approx. 50 to 60% of its O&M cost through its water sales.
In 2015 the production and delivery of 1 m³ of water cost about 14 SSP/m³ and it raised to 840 SSP/m³ in 2022. Mainly due to the deflation of the SSP against the USD and the rising prices for fuel and chemicals the cost of safe water. That means that YTWSS would have to charge 1000 SSP/m³ to cover its cost of operation.
For 2022 it is estimated that with the current tariff YTWSS will be able to cover approx. 60% of its cost through water sales. This does not include increasing personnel costs due to the payment of inflation compensations. 40% of the cost or approx. 2.6 million SSP are the projected deficit of the company that needs to be covered by third parties to ensure continuous operation. GIZ has agreed to support 40% of personnel cost up to the end of June 2023 and the utility has to fully cover its operational cost by July 2023.
In addition GIZ procures 40% of fuel and chemicals in the name of the company to ensure the water tankers and mobile kiosks / bowsers can be operated and the water been chlorinated to ensure national water quality standards for drinking water.
The performance and operation as well as the activities of YTWSS are jointly overseen by the Board of Directors (the BoD) apointed by the Honarable Commissioner of Yei River County.
In 2014,the first BoD were constituted and consists of three people who have been appointed by the shareholders of the utility as stipulated in the articles of association and memorandum of understanding namely:
- Board Chairman Mr. Alison Taligi
- Board Vice Chairman Mr. Satimon Ale
- Board Member / Treasury Ms.Clara Hayat
In 2017, the board members were dissolved by Honarable Commissioner Denis Lasuba, Yei River County and reinsteaded the new board of directors as below;
- Board Chairman Mr. Satimon Ale
- Board Vice Chairman Mr. Alfati Morgan
- Board Member/ Treasury Ms. Clara Hayat
In 2019, during the creation of the 32 states and Yei becomes a state, additional board members were added by the state secretariate namely;
1). Ms. Chandiru Lilly
2). Mr. Cons Guya
3). Ms. Raida Moriba as Treasury who replaces Ms. Clara Hayat.
Details of the composition of the BoD and their roles and responsibilities are laid out in the Articles of Association of YTWSS Ltd.
The board members of the utility oversee its operations and provide guidance for the development of policies that ensure the financial sustainability of the utility. The board members are answerable to the shareholders regarding the performance of the utility.
The board members terms of office runs for two years and changes has to be made by the stakeholders to appoint a new chairman for the utilit
