Relying on collecting water with containers has been a norm in South Africa due to constantly dry household taps.
Image: IOL
The water crisis has reached a boiling point across the country as some residents, whose household taps have been dry for months, are forced to go long distances daily to collect water in containers.
One of them is Zamokuhle Khumalo of Imbali township in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal.
He counts himself more fortunate as he uses his car to fetch water. Some of his neighbours have to push heavy wheelbarrows, while elderly people and those with disabilities spend part of their monthly grants paying others to fetch water for them.
Khumalo said the water crisis in his area had been going on for years.
“Sometimes, we don’t have water at all for two days or even the whole week, and the water tanker does not always arrive to deliver. “If the tanker does not arrive, I drive to other areas to find water,” he said.
“We have had many meetings with the councillor and the municipality, and our councillor keeps saying he does not know anything about the water being switched off,” he said.
He said while the residents do not have water, the Msunduzi Municipality keeps sending bills.
Unemployed young people have opened a business of fetching water for those who are not fit to do it themselves.
Image: X
“How do we pay for water that is not there, and they estimate water meters and send bills saying I owe R27 000 while there is no water,” he said.
Msunduzi Municipality spokesperson Ntobeko Ngcobo said the municipality started a gradual reduction in August 2025 to assist uMngeni-uThukela Water (UUW) to increase Midmar dam's volume by June 2026.
She said the municipality has achieved this target and will maintain this volume from now on.
"The implementation of curtailment was communicated on Msunduzi platforms in August 2025 as well as at Full Council, with councillors made aware of reductions that would be happening across the jurisdiction of Msunduzi," she said.
In the notice issued on August 28, the municipality said it received communication from UUW that its water supply had been reduced.
"Water curtailment refers to the reduction and restriction of the volume of water supplied to the Msunduzi Municipality.
"The municipality is bound by the licensed abstraction limits regulated by the Department of Water and Sanitation," read the notice.
Concern about water shortages across the country has prompted the People’s Water Forum (PWF) to join Melville residents protesting in Johannesburg on Friday.
Chairperson Dr Ferrial Adam said the Melville area has suffered water shortages for weeks.
“They have water, and they don’t have water, and they are actually just fed up. The problems are everywhere around the country and other places are much worse than Joburg,” she said.
Adam said among the worst affected provinces are Limpopo, Free State, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
“This is not a natural crisis but a crisis caused by poor governance, mismanagement and failure to deal with maintenance on time."
She said the water crisis around the country started to get worse two or three years ago.
“But in some areas they have been living for 10 or 14 years without water,” she said.
Johannesburg Water said in a statement on Friday that it was implementing various interventions across the city's network to assist with recovery.
Its spokesperson Nolwazi Dlamini said the entity has implemented the Water Conservation and Water Demand Management Programme, which is working on reducing water losses to ensure steady water supply.
“Johannesburg Water is constantly working to address water supply challenges through infrastructure planning and renewal led by the Planning Department, which monitors system conditions and plans replacements or upgrades accordingly,” said Dlamini.
In a statement released on March 13, PWF called on the City of Johannesburg to stop shifting blame and take responsibility for poor financial management that has led to its residents experiencing a water crisis.
PWF said the city would blame the national government, the homeless people, undocumented and foreign nationals, the weather, the private sector, and informal settlements.
It said the city’s failure to pay its service providers is the cause.
“As of mid-July, roughly 75% of the previous financial year's invoices remained unpaid, with the total owed to creditors sitting at approximately R1.8 billion.
“National Treasury's equitable share grant, which had been withheld from 64 municipalities nationally to pressure them into paying state-owned entities, was eventually released, but instead of reaching Johannesburg Water, it was used to settle the City's bulk supply accounts with Rand Water and Eskom.
“Johannesburg Water has since received only around R400 million in small, inconsistent instalments. This is far short of what is needed to maintain operations,” the organisation stated.
On Thursday, non-profit organisation WaterCAN released a statement expressing concern about dry taps and unreliable water supply in QwaQwa, in the Free State.
It said according to the latest Blue Drop and Green Drop reports from the Department of Water and Sanitation, Free State municipalities are among the country’s poorest performers in drinking-water quality.
“People in QwaQwa have had to adapt their lives around water failures that should never have become normal.
“A dry tap is not simply an inconvenience, but it affects whether families can cook, wash, go to school, run a small business or live with dignity,” said WaterCAN Free State representative Dipuo Hlalele.
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) released a report on June 10 on the water crisis in Makhanda, under the Makana Municipality, Eastern Cape, after its investigation found that the crisis was largely caused by governance failures, deteriorating infrastructure and inadequate maintenance.
It investigated after receiving more than 30 complaints between 2023 and 2026 relating to prolonged water outages linked to deteriorating infrastructure.
Evidence presented to the Commission confirmed that sufficient bulk water was available. The investigation found that the crisis is largely the result of governance failures, infrastructure deterioration, inadequate maintenance, weak accountability, institutional instability and failures in implementation.
Water and Sanitation spokesperson Wisane Mavasa did not respond directly to the questions and instead shared a July 23 media statement where President Cyril Ramaphosa outlined his National Water Action Plan. Ramaphosa spoke about increasing water infrastructure investment, reforming municipal service delivery and addressing corruption and criminality in the water sector.
Related Topics:
