Ramaphosa commits R23 billion to South Africa’s R1 trillion water crisis

The government has secured R23 billion for seven large water infrastructure projects, but this is just a drop in the bucket for what is genuinely needed to stem South Africa’s water crisis.

In his 2025 State of the Nation Address, delivered on Thursday, 6 February, President Cyril Ramaphosa said a secure and reliable water supply across the country is an urgent priority.

“Like we did with electricity, I know, and I am hopeful, that we will resolve the water crisis that we have,” he said. “We will ensure our focus on water is intensive, and it will speed up.”

He said the government is taking “decisive actions” to resolve the country’s water crisis. This includes, amongst other initiatives, investing heavily in the country’s water resources.

Therefore, the president announced that, to date, the government’s Infrastructure Fund has secured  R23 billion for seven large water infrastructure projects.

In addition, he said the government has worked to end delays in major water infrastructure projects and prepare for the construction of new projects.

He added that establishing the National Water Resource Infrastructure Agency will be completed by the end of the year and help unlock much greater investment in water projects.

In addition, through the Water Services Amendment Bill, the government will introduce a licensing system for water service providers and remove licenses where providers don’t meet the relevant standards.

While these initiatives will help address some of the issues contributing to South Africa’s water crisis, the sheer scale of the crisis means the government will likely need to do a lot more.

From a financial perspective, it has been estimated that South Africa will have to spend R1 trillion to repair its collapsing water infrastructure and upgrade it to meet the growing demand for the resource.

Professor at the University of the Free State, Dr Anthony Turton, previously explained that water outages experienced across the country are not due to a lack of water but rather the failure to get water from bulk suppliers to where it is consumed. 

“It is not a water scarcity issue. It is an institutional failure issue,” he said. 

Nearly half of all water supplied in South Africa is estimated to be non-revenue, meaning it does not reach an end user. Instead, it is lost through leakages and theft. 

As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult for bulk water suppliers to maintain sufficient pressure to get water from their facilities to reservoirs in major cities and the end user. 

They have resorted to increasing the pressure at which they pump the water, which has accelerated the deterioration of infrastructure.

In addition, South Africa’s water boards – which support municipalities by providing bulk water treatment and water distribution infrastructure – are in disarray.

In November last year, the Department of Water and Sanitation warned that two of the country’s seven water boards are on the brink of bankruptcy due to massive municipal debts.

The issue stems from water boards being funded solely by municipal payments for water services rather than by the national government.

When municipalities fail to pay, as seen in the Free State’s Matjhabeng Council, which owes R7 billion, the water boards face financial collapse.

In September last year, Deputy Water and Sanitation Minister David Mahlobo warned that a number of the nation’s water agencies “will never make it to next March if these debts are not paid”, and may close down.

“In our case, they are owing the water boards because water boards give them the bulk water supply.” He added that the debt is above R23 billion.

City Press reported that the boards’ closing will affect Gauteng, Limpopo, the North West, parts of the Northern Cape, and the Free State.

Altogether, water services to almost 8 million people are at risk.

Therefore, while the government’s commitment to resolving the water challenges is a step in the right direction, the country’s crisis will need far more before it is truly resolved.

For example, South African Water Chamber CEO Benoit Le Roy previously estimated that Johannesburg alone will need R25 billion to fix its water infrastructure.

“We need to fix the leaking buckets. It will cost about R25 billion to fix Johannesburg’s water infrastructure, and you cannot do it overnight,” Le Roy said. 

In July last year, he estimated that if work began now to upgrade and develop Johannesburg’s water infrastructure, residents would feel the effect in a year to 18 months. 

“We need to move. That is the big thing. We are talking a lot and raising awareness, but we are not moving.”