Foul: Pigs root in sludge in Emfuleni municipality. (Photo: Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Unsafe water is no longer confined to rural communities — it is a widespread national risk, reaching taps and water storage tanks in households and schools across South Africa, according to results from the 2025 WaterCAN Citizen Science Testing Week.
Now in its fourth year, the campaign, run in September, mobilised volunteers across all nine provinces to collect samples from taps, storage tanks, rivers, dams and boreholes, creating one of the largest independent snapshots of the country’s water quality.
Across 125 tested sources, the results were “deeply concerning”, said WaterCAN, a civil society initiative that champions water justice.
Gauteng recorded 39 unsafe samples out of 59; KwaZulu-Natal 16 out of 21; the Free State five out of seven; the Eastern Cape seven out of 12; the North West four out of nine; and the Northern Cape two out of three. In the Western Cape, most tested sources were also unsafe for human consumption.
WaterCAN emphasised that the contamination is driven by several interconnected failures: untreated or partially treated sewage entering rivers, dams and groundwater; failing municipal drinking water systems, particularly where tap water tested positive for E. coli; and unsafe household storage in water storage tanks common in rural and township areas.
“A lot of our testers who test monthly were doing the tests over September, so it is telling that these issues are not going away,” said WaterCAN executive director Ferrial Adam. “They are not once-off.”
Weak or inconsistent chlorine disinfection and poor routine municipal testing further worsen the risks. “South Africans should not second-guess whether the water from their taps and tanks is safe to drink,” said Nomsa Daele, the non-profit’s citizen science and training coordinator.
“When our community testers are picking up E. coli in household drinking water in eight municipalities, it is deeply concerning. This is just a sample by committed volunteers. The true extent of this crisis is likely much worse.”
More than 500 WaterCAN citizen science test kits were distributed to community volunteers. In most provinces, 66% of tested sources were unsafe for human consumption.
“In Limpopo, for example, all four sampled sources — a tap, a river and two other domestic sources in Waterberg and Mopani — were unsafe,” Daele said.
Widespread pollution
The findings identified unsafe tap samples in municipalities such as Sedibeng, King Cetshwayo, Gert Sibande, Waterberg and Bojanala Platinum, as well as unsafe or warning-level JoJo tanks and other domestic sources in Johannesburg, Gert Sibande, Waterberg, Mopani and Pixley ka Seme.
In Gauteng, unsafe results included municipal taps and JoJo tanks, alongside extensive contamination in rivers and dams. In KwaZulu-Natal, rivers were heavily contaminated, a tap in King Cetshwayo tested positive for E. coli and phosphate hotspots were evident.
In Limpopo, all four tested sources were unsafe, with extreme phosphate levels recorded in two samples. In the Western Cape, seven of 10 samples were unsafe, mainly from rivers, while tap water was generally safe. Mpumalanga recorded contamination in a Gert Sibande tap and nearby rivers.
Meanwhile, results from the North West, Free State, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape showed persistent bacterial contamination in rivers, dams and tanks, alongside isolated unsafe taps or JoJo tanks.
While chemical indicators such as nitrates and nitrites were mostly within safe limits, elevated phosphate levels signalled ongoing sewage leaks, greywater discharge and agricultural runoff.
“In most provinces, the majority of tested sources were unsafe for human consumption, with contamination patterns pointing strongly to poorly treated sewage and failing wastewater systems rather than isolated incidents,” its report said.
“Phosphates from sewage, detergents and runoff feed algal blooms and signal a steady stream of wastewater and effluent entering our rivers and dams.”
Coupled with widespread bacterial contamination, this points not to isolated spills but to chronic sewage and wastewater failures across catchments.
“South Africa’s water crisis is as much about untreated sewage and poor operation of wastewater and storage systems as it is about raw scarcity,” the report said.
Open sewers
The samples were analysed by Anja du Plessis, an associate professor at Unisa and a specialist in water resource management.
“The data shows that no province is spared, with almost all tested surface water resources having unsafe water quality,” she said. “Our rivers and dams have become open sewers, contaminated with chemical pollutants and sewage.”
What is particularly concerning, du Plessis added, is that the poor water quality is not a once-off pollution event. “We are seeing the same pattern across provinces: sewage and wastewater consistently leaking into rivers and dams, phosphate hotspots, and even contaminated taps and tanks at the point where families drink and cook.”
Until there is routine testing, public reporting and real consequences for polluters, residents will continue to carry the risk, she said.
WaterCAN said the combination of high bacterial loads, phosphate hotspots and the sheer number of unsafe samples demands immediate action.
The organisation is calling for urgent municipal and provincial interventions; routine, transparent water quality monitoring; emergency provision of safe water where domestic sources are unsafe; and sustained community awareness so residents understand that rivers, dams and any tap or tank testing positive for faecal bacteria cannot be considered safe for drinking.
Adam said some municipalities had dismissed the findings because they were indicator tests rather than laboratory analyses.
“We agree — they are indicator tests,” she said. “But they are established and they are showing a lot. What is very worrying for us, is that a lot of the time, we get alerted to people who are dependent on those streams, on those rivers, on those bad taps; that’s what they’re using for their everyday use and the government is completely turning a blind eye to that.”