Water and sanitation minister, Pemmy Majodina. (DWS/X)
The department of water and sanitation (DWS) is intensifying infrastructure development, municipal support and institutional reform to avert a worsening national water crisis, it told parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday.
The department’s director general Sean Phillips said that although national raw water supply remained broadly in balance with demand, infrastructure strain, municipal dysfunction, corruption and high water losses had placed critical pressure on service delivery, particularly in Gauteng and eThekwini.
Phillips said that according to the department’s asset register, 81% of the national water resource infrastructure was either in “a fair condition, good condition or very good condition and we are raising finance for investment in new water infrastructure”.
At a municipal level, however, “the picture is quite different”.
“Generally speaking, municipal water and sanitation infrastructure is not at all in a good condition. Water services have deteriorated markedly at a municipal level, as borne out by the DWS blue, green and no drop reports, which we reinstated a year or two ago,” Phillips said, adding that the problem went beyond the condition of infrastructure.
“It’s also about municipalities not hiring people with the right skills to properly manage and operate the water infrastructure.”
Last week, the auditor general told Scopa that the water and sanitation department and its associated entities were incurring billions of rand in losses because of pervasive poor planning and project delays.
Deputy Minister David Mahlobo told the committee on Tuesday that non-revenue water losses stood at 52% in Gauteng and 62% in eThekwini.
Of the 144 water services authorities in municipalities countrywide, 105 were performing “dismally”, minister Pemmy Majodina told Scopa, attributing this to high levels of non-revenue water, poor infrastructure management and institutional weaknesses.
She said her department formed part of an inter-ministerial committee that would send teams to the “top 20” worst affected municipalities to intervene.
Several structural reforms had been implemented, said Phillips.
These include amendments to the Water Services Act that aim to separate the roles of Water Services Authorities and Water Services Providers; ring-fencing revenue collected from water tariffs for use in water services only and the introduction of single-point accountability for service delivery.
The reforms are supported by the treasury’s Reform of Metropolitan Trading Services Programme and Phase 2 of Operation Vulindlela — a joint initiative of the finance department and the presidency aimed at accelerating the implementation of structural measures to help economic recovery.
South Africa ranks among the 30 most water-scarce countries in the world, yet the average per capita consumption remains well above the global average.
Phillips said that to ensure raw water security in the future, three things were needed: more dams, diversification of the country’s water mix and more effective conservation and demand management.
Addressing the high number of criminal and civil cases that the department has to deal with, Majodina reiterated that if DWS had its way, there would be special courts to deal with all corruption-related cases, so the matters could be “done and dusted”.
She used the example of pollution, saying the department would first talk to offending municipalities, then warn them and eventually take the non-compliant to court. Those cases lasted for five to seven years, she said, and in that time, the pollution continued.
Infrastructure backlogs have been another area of concern. For years, major national surface water projects have been stalled, including phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, the uMzimvubu and uMkhomazi projects. These are now in the implementation phase.
Progress had also been made in unblocking long-delayed municipal projects. In the Giyani water project, for example, phase 1 had brought piped water to all households in 23 of 24 villages, while phase 2, which will extend services to 31 more villages, is set to begin later this year.
The department has deployed water boards to support struggling municipalities in Gauteng, Free State, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal. Interventions here include infrastructure repairs, sewer unblocking, pump station refurbishments and restoring municipal operation and maintenance functions.
In Emfuleni, Rand Water has led an intervention aimed at curbing sewage spills into the Vaal River and onto streets. The estimated cost of the seven-year intervention is R7.5 billion.
To address mounting debt, the water department, in partnership with the treasury, has introduced credit control measures, a debt write-off mechanism and the withholding of equitable share transfers for non-compliant municipalities.
The department said it had also taken a firm stance on sanitation. It has gazetted new norms and standards declaring bucket toilets unacceptable and is promoting chemical toilets and water-efficient, non-sewered sanitation technologies in dense informal settlements.
The Bucket Eradication Programme, originally managed by the department of human settlements and now under the water and sanitation portfolio, has completed bucket replacements in the Eastern Cape and North West. Projects in the Free State and Northern Cape are nearing completion.
Efforts to professionalise the department include a revised organisational structure and the appointment of qualified senior management.
Improved financial controls have seen the department move from near bankruptcy in 2016-17 under then minister Nomvula Mokonyane, who is now the first deputy secretary general of the ANC, to achieving over 99% expenditure on its budget and full spending of its infrastructure grants.
Audit performance has improved, said Phillips, with the department now receiving unqualified audits with findings and implementing a roadmap to achieve clean audits. It has also significantly reduced irregular and unauthorised expenditure compared to 2017-18 levels.
Anti-corruption measures have also been strengthened, according to the department. Its internal audit unit finalised 446 investigations between 2019 and 2025, confirming 326 cases of misconduct.
Disciplinary outcomes included dismissals, suspensions and demotions. A new Water Sector Anti-Corruption Forum, launched jointly with the Special Investigating Unit in May 2025, aims to improve enforcement and information sharing.