Broken Pipes, Broken Promises: Why South Africa is Falling Behind on Water and Sanitation Goals

By 2030, South Africa was supposed to proudly tick off Sustainable Development Goal 6: ensuring access to clean water and sanitation for all. But halfway there, that goal is slipping further out of reach , not because of a lack of ideas, but because municipalities across the country are failing to keep the most basic systems working.

Water goals drowned by local dysfunction

At the heart of the problem lies a troubling reality: many of South Africa’s water services authorities are not up to the task. According to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation, municipalities are simply not maintaining or operating water infrastructure properly, a failure that is now polluting rivers, inflating purification costs, and putting public health at risk.

Committee chairperson Leon Basson didn’t mince words. “The diagnosis has always been clear,” he said. “What’s needed now is a focused programme of action.”

The recent National Water and Sanitation Indaba made bold resolutions, but without immediate implementation by struggling municipalities, those promises could amount to little more than paperwork.

Sewage in the streams, budgets in the red

Residents in many communities don’t need a committee report to know something’s wrong. Burst pipes, dry taps, and sewage-filled rivers have become part of daily life in some areas. On social media, frustrated citizens post photos of brown water and dead fish, calling out their local governments for negligence.

One X user wrote, “We have the tech to go to space, but not to fix leaking sewage into our rivers?”

These failures aren’t just local inconveniences. The more polluted the rivers get, the more expensive it becomes to clean the water, a burden passed down to water boards, municipalities, and ultimately, ratepayers who can barely afford the basics. Meanwhile, service delivery protests over water are growing louder in places like Emfuleni, Hammanskraal, and Giyani.

No money, no maintenance, no water

The water crisis is also a budget crisis. The committee acknowledged that the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has solid policy direction, but implementation hits a wall due to limited funds and poor cooperation between key departments.

Basson called for urgent action: “The DWS and COGTA must engage with National Treasury immediately to review the way water and sanitation grants are structured. We can’t afford any more delays.”

A particularly worrying point is the growing debt municipalities owe to water boards. The committee is pushing for part of municipalities’ equitable share from the national budget to be “top-sliced” redirected automatically to pay these debts and ensure stable cash flow across the water value chain.

Looking to the private sector for help

The state doesn’t have to fix this alone. The committee is encouraging partnerships with the private sector through the Water Partnerships Office, which could unlock innovation and extra resources to support broken water systems.

But success depends on more than just money. There’s also a lack of reliable data about the quality of water South Africans are consuming. The committee has urged Statistics South Africa to help plug this gap so that future water planning is based on solid evidence, not guesswork.

South Africa’s water future is at a crossroads

SDG 6 isn’t just a number, it’s a promise to millions of South Africans still living without reliable access to clean water. But that promise is in jeopardy. And while national plans are important, it’s what happens (or doesn’t happen) at the local level that will decide whether we sink or swim.

The coming months will reveal whether government departments, municipalities, and private partners can work together fast enough to repair more than just pipes, they’ll need to restore public trust in the most essential service of all.

{Source: IOL}

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