Of primary importance in the South African context is the success of service delivery, and the extent to which institutions of service delivery are accountable to the citizens. Institutional changes, which ensure that service providers are accountable to all citizens, are an important political imperative. Undertaking such changes on a pilot basis is difficult enough, scaling it up across jurisdictions and sustaining it over time, is a daunting challenge. Yet, it is precisely the scaling up of institutional change that is needed to ensure that the goal of universal access to reliable basic services is realised. Whilst the Department has made immense progress in ensuring access to water to the citizens of South Africa, the financial performance and correlation of indicators to targets during this financial year requires further scrutiny.