Water activists and experts are calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to urgently address the country’s deepening water crisis in his State of the Nation Address on Thursday, warning that failure to act could result in economic collapse and social instability.
The calls come as communities across the country face water shortages and outages lasting more than a week, with infrastructure deterioration reaching critical levels and sewage contaminating water sources.
Experts outline critical expectations for Sona
Dr Ferrial Adam of WaterCan said the president must move beyond ambitious promises and focus on the immediate infrastructure crisis affecting communities nationwide.
The country faces dual challenges of water quality and quantity that require urgent presidential attention.
“Across the country, half of our drinking water systems are not fit for drinking and almost 60-70% of the wastewater treatment works are critical and spewing sewage into our rivers and streams,” Adam said.
She stressed that communities need concrete action rather than announcements about future projects. “The president needs to give his attention to that and stop giving us wild promises about big projects and saying, you know, this dam is being built and that bridge is being built because right now on the ground, we don’t see any of that,” Adam said.
Call for national disaster declaration
Among the key demands activists are making ahead of Thursday’s address is a call for Ramaphosa to declare a national disaster on water infrastructure.
Adam emphasised that this declaration should be accompanied by ring-fenced budgets dedicated specifically to water and sanitation.
“We want Ramaphosa to call for a national disaster on infrastructural issues on water,” she said, adding that the president must also respond to recent controversial statements by the Minister of Water Affairs, who claimed the crisis is not her department’s responsibility.
Adam warned that decades of neglected maintenance of critical infrastructure, including reservoirs, pump stations and water pipes, have created a national emergency that the president can no longer ignore in his address to the nation.
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Presidential response to ministerial failures demanded
Water management and environmental governance expert Carin Bosman said immediate presidential intervention is required to address leadership failures at the department of water affairs. She called on Ramaphosa to use his Sona address to announce a leadership change at the department.
“It is clear that the current minister does not have a clue what water governance and management is about and is an embarrassment. Immediate presidential intervention is required,” Bosman said.
She described recent statements by the minister as “inconceivable and simply untrue,” particularly the claim that the national department of water affairs is “only responsible for raw water” and therefore not responsible for the crisis.
“The department does have oversight power over the local governments that have failed to properly maintain their infrastructure and can intervene and assist municipalities with failing infrastructure to rectify it,” Bosman said.
Accountability and corruption must be addressed
Experts are calling on the president to commit to accountability measures and anti-corruption action in the water sector during his Thursday address.
Adam pointed to a troubling pattern of inaction that must be reversed.
“We are not calling for privatisation. But what we are saying is that they need to be able to fire people who are not doing their jobs. That needs to happen. There needs to be better accountability,” she said.
“In last year’s Sona, the president did not deal with corruption. He needs to deal with issues of corruption in the water sector.”
Bosman echoed these concerns, rating the government’s response to water infrastructure deterioration over the past year as extremely poor.
She noted that millions of rands have been allocated to conferences and international travel while communities remain without water.
“If I had to score them out of 100, they would not even get 5%,” Bosman said.
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Urgent policy reforms needed in Sona
Water experts want to hear the president commit to specific policy reforms in his Sona, including a complete overhaul of the water licensing system and improved training for department officials.
Bosman highlighted systemic failures that require presidential attention, including an online licensing system that doesn’t even make provision for municipal wastewater.
She also called on the president to appoint a new minister to oversee failing municipalities and implement erosion-prevention strategies.
“The over-emphasis on ‘wetland protection’ at the expense of groundwater protection and erosion control makes no scientific sense from a water management perspective,” Bosman said.
Experts also suggest that the minister issue regulations to establish norms and standards for water tankers and to ringfence water-based income streams, preventing the reallocation of people’s water rates to other municipal expenses.
Economic consequences if president fails to act
Adam warned that if Ramaphosa fails to adequately address water security in his Sona speech with more than “wishful thinking and promises”, the economic fallout will be severe and swift.
“I believe that the consequences for communities and the economy over the next 12 to 24 months will be even further worsened with higher job losses. Small and medium enterprises are being the hardest hit,” she said.
Beyond economic impacts, she highlighted emerging security concerns that the president must acknowledge.
“You are going to be seeing a crisis of health issues where communities cannot afford to get water, that are not getting water and you’re going to have, you could end up with quite an unstable situation. We’re seeing that people have been shot standing by a water tank, in a queue. So this is just the beginning. If they don’t do something, it could definitely be mayhem,” Adam said.
Water must be at forefront of presidential address
Bosman emphasised that water security should be the central focus of Thursday’s Sona, not a peripheral issue among many others.
She framed water as the foundation upon which all other national priorities depend.
“If the President fails to adequately address water security and the abovementioned water governance aspects in his Sona speech, the country will face a serious institutional drought in both metropolitan and rural areas within a short timeframe,” she said.
She called on Ramaphosa to demonstrate a genuine understanding of water’s fundamental importance to the nation.
“Water is life. Water drives the economy. Water is essential to feed people and for people to cook with. Water brings dignity. Failing to properly address water issues with the utmost urgency will cause bigger harm to our country than all of the Covid-lockdowns combined,” Bosman stated.
She concluded with a direct appeal to the president ahead of Thursday’s address: “I would like to hear the president speak about water as if he actually understands its importance, and it should be at the forefront of his speech, as properly dealing with water is the starting point of dealing with all the other issues our country faces.”
What government response has been
When asked to evaluate the government’s response to water infrastructure challenges, Adam said action has been inadequate and slow.
“It’s been slow and in many cases, they haven’t even responded. So if they don’t actually do something now, I think we will be in a much worse situation further down the line,” she said.
Some policy changes are in the pipeline, including a new Water Act that would allow national government to remove local governments’ responsibility for supplying water and sanitation, but experts say these measures must be accompanied by the accountability and intervention they are calling on the president to announce on Thursday.
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