It is a daily reality for millions who continue to pay for services, even as reliability deteriorates. Some say water security is the next major crisis, but it has long been an escalating and urgent one for South African citizens.
Climate variability and drought have an impact, but are not the primary causes of the crisis. Human-made factors, such as ageing, undermaintained infrastructure, extensive leaks, weak municipal management and a near total absence of accountability, are far more damaging.
According to the most recent No Drop report
In many municipalities, more water is lost through system failure than is delivered to consumers.
Water that is lost or unaccounted for due to leaks, ageing infrastructure and illegal connections.
Water lost annually in South Africa.
In Gauteng alone, Rand Water revealed that 2.5 billion litres of the 5.2 billion it provides to municipalities in the province every day is lost through leaks, ageing infrastructure and theft.
This structural collapse impacts every sector of society and the broader economy. For businesses, water insecurity has become an operational and financial risk. It undermines productivity, increases compliance challenges and drives up costs.
For citizens, it threatens dignity, health and household financial stability. And for the economy, it steadily erodes confidence and deters investment. Water insecurity is no longer a government issue; it is everyone’s issue.
Calling for accountability
Yet the dominant solution is collaboration, which cannot succeed without confronting an uncomfortable truth: collaboration without accountability risks perpetuating failure rather than resolving it.
Water service delivery is fundamentally a value exchange – the government provides a service, and citizens and businesses pay for it. When supply is unreliable or poor in quality, resistance to payment is not a moral failing but a predictable response to a broken system.
We must acknowledge this dynamic. Expecting continued payment for dysfunctional services undermines trust and weakens the revenue base needed to finance maintenance and upgrades. Trust cannot be legislated or demanded. It must be earned through performance.
While often touted as a reason for failing infrastructure, South Africa does not lack capital to address water challenges. The real constraint – the “bud” of the issue – is municipal capability and governance.
Many municipalities lack the technical expertise required to manage complex water systems. Preventative maintenance is neglected, leak detection is inadequate, and infrastructure planning often fails to anticipate demand.
Administratively, billing failures, procurement weaknesses, contractor mismanagement and poor revenue collection compound the problem.
Crucially, non-performance rarely results in meaningful consequences. Without accountability, there is little incentive for improvement and collaboration becomes superficial.
Private sector participation
In response, companies increasingly self-provision by drilling boreholes, installing filtration systems and expanding storage capacity. While understandable, this is not a national solution. Businesses cannot and should not replace the government’s constitutional duty to deliver basic services.
This trend is widening the gap between those who can afford resilience and those who cannot. We saw the same phenomenon during the peak of the energy crisis; those who could afford to install solar systems did so out of necessity, while the rest of the citizens and businesses were left behind.
While the private sector can play a constructive role, this can only work within a framework that is transparent, accountable and tied to measurable improvement. Poorly structured partnerships risk enabling failing institutions to outsource responsibility without reforming governance or operations.
A functional model of public private collaboration should prioritise:
But for such partnerships to work, municipalities must meet the private sector halfway with credible governance, clear rules and enforceable performance standards.
What citizens and businesses can do
Citizens have influence, but it requires organisation and persistence. Beyond paying for services, residents can:
- Continuously demand transparency on water losses, maintenance schedules and outage responses.
- Participate in Integrated Development Plan processes. I recently attended a session hosted by the City of Joburg in collaboration with City Power and the World Bank, where the city turnaround strategy was presented.
- Persistently report leaks and system failures. This can only be encouraging if repairs are conducted timeously and the repair work is of high quality.
- Advocate for ringfenced water revenue to ensure funds meant for water are spent on water.
Businesses, especially those with technical expertise, can:
- Contribute skills and operational knowledge rather than funding alone.
- Advocate collectively through chambers and associations.
- Support structured partnerships tied to verifiable outcomes.
READ MORE: Water resilience as a strategic business issue
Listen to podcast
In this episode of No Ordinary Wednesday, host Jeremy Maggs is joined by Dr Sean Phillips, Director-General of the Department of Water and Sanitation and other guests to discuss the water crisis.
What government must do
Rebuilding trust requires visible, measurable reforms. Government should:
- Enforce real consequences for persistent non-performance.
- Professionalise municipal water management through skills-based appointments.
- Increase transparency by publishing performance data, budgets and recovery plans.
- Establish clear, fair frameworks for private participation that protect the public interest.
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Solving water insecurity
Solidarity will not solve water insecurity. Performance will. Water insecurity demands collective action; it requires collaboration anchored in capability, accountability, mutual responsibility and respect for South African citizens.
Without meaningful consequences for failure, partnerships will not yield desired outcomes. Without citizen pressure, reforms will stall. And without functional municipalities, the private sector cannot fill the gap.
Taking water insecurity personally is not about blame. It is about recognising that water underpins the economy, public health, social stability and dignity and demanding a system where performance finally matters.
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