SA’s water crisis has reached a critical point, with government officials sounding the alarm over the country's deteriorating water systems and the growing challenges to providing safe, clean drinking water to millions of citizens.
The latest revelations at the Water and Sanitation Indaba at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, Johannesburg, painted a bleak picture, highlighting ageing infrastructure, criminal activity, poor governance, and mounting debt as key drivers behind the worsening crisis.
Director-general in the water and sanitation department, Sean Phillips, painted a grim picture of the state of water provision in the country, revealing that the percentage of water supply systems with poor or bad microbiological water quality compliance has skyrocketed from just 5% in 2014 to 46% in 2023. This dramatic decline has significantly increased the risk of waterborne diseases like cholera and chronic diarrhoea.
“Lack of skilled staff is a key issue. Gauteng has the highest percentage of drinking water systems with excellent or good performance and the lowest shortfall of qualified staff. Northern Cape has highest percentage of drinking water systems with poor or critical performance and highest shortfall of qualified staff.
Governance failures have compounded the crisis, with widespread corruption and mismanagement crippling the ability of municipalities and water boards to provide basic services and manage infrastructure. As a result, on average 32% of water is lost nationally before it can even reach household taps, he said.
Gauteng has the highest percentage of drinking water systems with excellent or good performance and the lowest shortfall of qualified staff.
— Sean Phillips
Even more alarming, the debt owed by municipalities to water boards had tripled in the last seven years, reaching a staggering R24.8bn, pushing them to bankruptcy and impeding their ability to provide water to communities. This debt had ballooned from just R7,96bn in 2018.
The deterioration of water infrastructure had also reached a tipping point, worsened by criminality and vandalism.
The SA Local Government Association (Salga) deputy president, Xola Pakati, pointed out that criminal syndicates and construction mafias were actively undermining efforts to repair and improve critical infrastructure. “Construction mafias undermine our projects and our ability to complete infrastructure. We lose money not because we don’t want to spend it or can’t spend it, but because of criminal elements in the sector,” he said.
This sentiment was echoed by President Cyril Ramaphosa and water and sanitation minister Pemmy Majodina, who also spoke at the event.
Ramaphosa condemned the growing criminality within the water sector, where syndicates were allegedly sabotaging pipelines to create a market for their water truck businesses.
“There are people who make it their business to go and cut water lines to create businesses for themselves. That is the criminality that has now entered the water space. And this is what we must collectively talk about here and find ways of bringing that to an end,” he said.
Ramaphosa also criticised corruption in municipalities and water boards , saying poor governance and financial mismanagement were compounding service delivery issues. “Governance challenges and inefficiencies at the various reporting entities, including the waterboards, have long been in the public domain,” he said.
Majodina said the water crisis was worsened by multiple factors beyond just leaks and governance failures. “Organised criminality, water tinkering, extortion mafia, vandalism of critical public infrastructure, corruption, exponential growth, especially in informal settlements in cities, resulting in high unplanned demands and illegal water connections are some of the challenges worsening the situation,” she said.
Philips said one of the immediate priorities to help arrest the issue was the upgrade and maintenance of aging infrastructure to reduce leaks, improve water quality, and ensure reliable supply. “Without proper maintenance, water treatment plants will continue to fail, leaving millions of South Africans vulnerable to health risks. Municipal finances also need strengthening, as many local governments are unable to collect revenue efficiently due to high levels of non-revenue water,” he said..
Finding new raw water sources, addressing municipal debt owed to water boards as well as the increasing private sector involvement in the water sector are some of the recommendations Philips said can be a solution to the crisis.
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