How South Africa's water crisis threatens human rights and demands urgent reform

IOL News

10-05-2025

Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina.
Image: Itumeleng English / Independent Newspapers
South Africa is grappling with the challenges of deteriorating water infrastructure, inadequate investment, underfunding, and increasing resource scarcity, which are both environmental and economic imperatives, according to experts.
These have led millions of people across the country to experience water supply shortages and even dry taps.
The frustration with inconsistent water supply or lack of it resulted in some taking the matter to the SA Human Rights Commission and even the United Nations.
The South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) Water Division said that the country stands at a critical juncture in its infrastructure development, with water infrastructure at the forefront of this challenge, which has left taps dry in many communities.
'Water security is the foundation of economic stability and growth. Without reliable access to clean and affordable water, industries falter, agriculture suffers, communities struggle, and investors reconsider investment in South Africa.
'For millions living in poverty, unreliable access to clean water is not just an inconvenience. It poses a daily threat to health, livelihoods, and survival, not to mention revoking the constitutional human right to water, as enshrined as a fundamental human right in South Africa (supported by both the Constitution of 1996 and the Water Services Act 108 of 1997). Water insecurity has a ripple effect, with the potential of slowing the economy, disrupting education, worsening food shortages, and undermining the country's overall stability,' SAICE Water Division said.
The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) recently revealed that the country needs to spend over R90 billion a year over the next decade to repair and upgrade existing infrastructure.
Despite the R156.3 billion being committed towards water and sanitation in the 2025 Budget Speech, SACE was concerned that municipalities might lack the engineering expertise, among other things, to use these grants efficiently.
Wynand Dreyer, chairperson of the SAICE Advocacy Committee, said: 'In the absence of proper planning, feasibility studies and suitable technically driven procurement, such grants may be misspent or even unspent, whether on upgrading, renewal or new infrastructure.
'The imperative to fix and renew aged and defective infrastructure cannot be over-emphasised. Our statistics on non-revenue water tell a damning story of neglect with over 40% of water produced and supplied to more than 80% of the country, lost due to aging and broken infrastructure as a result of leaks or unaccounted for water due to theft. We desperately need to see these numbers turned around.'
Video Player is loading.
Play Video
Play
Unmute
Current Time
0:00
/
Duration
-:-
Loaded :
0%
Stream Type LIVE
Seek to live, currently behind live
LIVE
Remaining Time
-
0:00
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque
Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps
Reset
restore all settings to the default values Done
Close Modal Dialog
End of dialog window.
Advertisement
Video Player is loading.
Play Video
Play
Unmute
Current Time
0:00
/
Duration
-:-
Loaded :
0%
Stream Type LIVE
Seek to live, currently behind live
LIVE
Remaining Time
-
0:00
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque
Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps
Reset
restore all settings to the default values Done
Close Modal Dialog
End of dialog window.
Next
Stay
Close ✕
Dr Ferrial Adam, executive manager of a non-governmental organisation, Water Community Action Network (WaterCAN), said South Africa's water resources are in trouble from every aspect, rivers being polluted by sewage, oceans being polluted, agriculture, pesticides, mining, all of that.
'The infrastructure is also a big challenge, and the fact that the government has not spent the required amount on infrastructure, and for the national government to keep thinking that this is going to be solved by the local government, is very duplicitous.
'The state we are in right now cannot be left only to the local government. So, the national government, and not just the Department of Water and Sanitation, needs to deal with this together. And until that happens, we are going to see continued pollution, continued outages, and large parts of South Africans not getting access to clean, safe drinking water,' Adam said.
She added that the government's blue drop report shows that almost half of the country's drinking water systems should not be consumed, which she described as a failure in terms of functionality and reliability.
'There are significant regional disparities, but not only regional, it is also that your biggest cities may have better functionality or better reliability as you move outskirts. So, in a lot of the areas outside of the big metros, you can't drink that water anymore, but you can drink the water in big metros.
'The irony, though, is that in a city like Johannesburg, where you can drink the water from the taps, the system is completely falling apart, and we see that every day,' she remarked.
According to Adam, there needs to be an increase in the budget and the focus that is being given to address the issues around water and water infrastructure. Be it drinking water quality, the pipes, reservoirs that are leaking, and there is no funding to actually get those fixed.
'But also, we must not ignore the state of our wastewater treatment works across the country, where almost 70% of them are in a critical state. So, we need to take urgent steps, and we cannot continue like this.
'It almost seems as if the government as a whole, whichever party doesn't matter. The government as a whole does not get the full understanding of what is going on with our water and the state of our water and sanitation,' she said.
She highlighted that the daily realities for communities facing water challenges are unbelievable.
'The fact that people have to live with sewage flowing past their doors, and their front doors and their windows have to stay closed. The fact that in many parts of areas where there are shared toilets, at night, women are too afraid to use the toilet. Those are the kind of realities of communities that are facing both water and sanitation challenges on a daily basis.
'And I don't think that that is reflected in anything, in any speech, in any document, in any policy that we are seeing right now. It's a complete violation of basic human rights and people's dignity. And how a government can get away with that, I don't know,' Adam said.
During the recent Water and Sanitation Indaba, DWS Minister Pemmy Majodina said, based on the DWS 2023 full Blue Drop and 2022 full Green Drop assessments, she has identified 105 out of the 144 water services authorities that are experiencing a water service delivery crisis.
She said this failure has contributed to the trust deficit in the sector, as the affected municipalities are unable to discharge their constitutional responsibilities in a number of areas, including basic service delivery and the management of critical infrastructure like water treatment plants and wastewater treatment plants.
The Department of Water and Sanitation says that 79% of the infrastructure assets by DWS are in very good, good, and fair condition, whereas 21% of infrastructure assets are in poor condition, which then informs the Department's maintenance plan annually, depending on the budget available.
Image: Department of Water and Sanitation
Wisane Mavasa, DWS spokesperson, said 79% of the infrastructure assets by the department are in very good, good, and fair condition, whereas 21% of infrastructure assets are in poor condition and which then informs the department's maintenance plan annually, depending on the budget available.
Most of the non-revenue water losses are in municipal distribution systems, for which the relevant water services authority is responsible. Municipalities are independent, and DWS cannot intervene by directly implementing any measures to address the water loss in municipal systems. DWS is, however, providing a supporting role to municipalities where they can access grant funding, she said.
'The grants administered by DWS are the Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant, which is currently funding over 100 projects with an estimated cost of over R9 billion in various municipalities. The Water Services Infrastructure Grant is currently funding over 400 projects with an estimated cost of over R4.8 billion in various municipalities.'
Mavasa added that water treatment systems and associated infrastructure are largely owned and managed by municipalities and water boards.
'The Department of Water and Sanitation does not have a substantial backlog in infrastructure maintenance. The backlog is within the Water Services Authorities' infrastructure. Municipal water and sanitation services are deteriorating, as borne out by the recent Green Drop, Blue Drop and No Drop reports. These challenges include poorly governed, poorly managed, and under-performing institutions resulting in high losses and inefficiencies, including high levels of non-revenue water.
'The main cause is a lack of investment in proper operations and maintenance of infrastructure by Water Services Authorities. At the same time, demand is increasing in urban areas, resulting in a rapidly growing infrastructure backlog. The department is not in a position to fund the operation and maintenance of the Water Services Authority infrastructure. This is supposed to be funded from revenue from the sale of water by Water Services Authorities. The department cannot make decisions to prioritise maintenance and operation budgets on behalf of municipalities. The decisions must be made by municipal councils,' Mavasa said.
She said the oversight or regulation governance of municipalities in general is not within the mandate of the Department of Water and Sanitation. The Municipal Structures Act states that the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) authorises municipalities to perform the function of providing water services.
'The Water Services Amendment Bill, which is currently in the Cluster system towards being presented to Cabinet, National Treasury's Reform of Metropolitan Trading Services Programme, and Phase 2 of Operation Vulindlela are introducing reforms aimed at changing the municipal water sector to operate on a utility model (either internal or external utilities). These reforms involve: a) Separation of the Water services Authority (WSA) and water Service Provider (WSP) functions, as required by law b) Ringfencing revenues from the sale of water for the water function c) Ringfencing all management functions related to the delivery of water and sanitation services, with single-point accountability,' Mavasa said.
DWS recognised that in most cases, it is more effective to invest in existing infrastructure to reduce leakages, rather than to direct the investment into increasing the supply, she said.
Mavasa added that the department is putting in place public-private collaboration agreements with industries such as the mines, which are investing billions for joint funding for infrastructure projects, which will simultaneously provide bulk water to industry and reticulated water to communities.
[e-mail]