Municipalities now owe the country’s water boards more than R27 billion, R23 billion of it overdue. The department’s budget for 2026/27 shows how that debt, and a shrinking budget, shape what can be built. When a household does not pay…
The African Union has made water and sanitation its theme for 2026, and South Africa has embraced it. The declaration puts water at the centre of the continent’s development agenda, and gives South Africa a chance to lead. Every year,…
Away from the headlines about metro outages, modest projects are bringing reliable water to villages and townships for the first time. Two recent examples, in Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, show what targeted investment can do. Most water news in South Africa…
Planned work on Rand Water’s Palmiet and Zuikerbosch systems from 29 May to 2 June will affect 69 Tshwane reservoirs. The city has activated an emergency plan and is asking residents to cut their water use sharply. Residents across large…
Over three days of hearings, Gauteng residents, Johannesburg Water and Rand Water laid out the human and financial cost of the province’s water crisis. The commission now says the crisis has reached disaster levels. From 19 to 21 May 2026,…
Flooded with complaints, the South African Human Rights Commission has launched a formal inquiry into whether Gauteng’s water failures amount to systemic rights violations, and it wants to hear from residents. Submissions close on 30 April. The South African Human…
The 2025 Green Drop report was grim reading, but it also named municipalities that treat their sewage to a high standard, and some that have turned failing systems around. Their stories show what works. When the Department of Water and…
The first full Green Drop report since 2022 shows wastewater treatment getting worse across almost every province, with the share of critical systems rising from 39 to 47 percent. Only 14 systems in the country earned certification. On Tuesday 31…
After 33 years, the two countries have revised the treaty that built the Maguga and Driekoppies dams. It is a quiet but important example of neighbours managing scarce water together, with Mozambique downstream in mind. Not every water story is…
New testing shows that two thirds of the Gauteng water sources sampled are unsafe, with sewage, waste and algae choking the Jukskei, Klip, Hennops and the Vaal. Government is turning to criminal charges and a polluter-pays levy, but the rivers…
The President has put himself at the head of a new National Water Crisis Committee, backed by R156 billion in infrastructure spending and criminal charges against 56 municipalities. The question now is whether it can do for water what a…
Civil society groups and the Human Rights Commission are calling on government to use disaster law to tackle the water crisis. A declaration could unlock money and speed, but it also carries real risks. For months, residents of Johannesburg and…
After years of unsafe water and broken promises, the community north of Pretoria is close to receiving reliable drinking water from an expanded Klipdrift treatment works. The work is late, but it is real. Few places have come to symbolise…
A bill tabled this month would ban private trading in water rights, let government take back unused allocations and put strict limits on mining and forestry in the country’s most important catchments. It could reshape who controls South Africa’s water.…