Water and Sanitation
Comrade K.S. Ramaila ANC, (MP)
14 March 2025
Restoring governance to improve the management and functionality of water service authorities to better manage their water and sanitation infrastructure.
Honourable Chairperson
Honourable Minister and Deputy Ministers
Honourable Members
As the African National Congress, we have prioritised the fixing of local government as part of the government’s top priority so as to restore good governance to improve the management and functionality of water service authorities to better manage their water and sanitation infrastructure, ensuring constant and reliable water supply and sanitation services.
Honourable Chairperson, President Ramaphosa, in his State of the Nation Address, affirmed the ANC’s commitment to actively address the water crisis in the country, as he outlined several big water infrastructure projects that, once they are developed, will expand access to communities without access to safe, clean drinking water as per the constitutional obligations.
Among the water infrastructure projects that President Ramaphosa announced are the construction of the Ntabelanga Dam that will be connected to the uMzimvubu River to supply additional water to former Transkei, mostly rural areas in the Eastern Cape, the uMkhomazi Dam, and the Polihali Dam, which will receive water from the Lesotho Highlands Water project to feed into the water supply for several provinces for both domestic use and for irrigation.
Honourable Chairperson, these big water infrastructure projects add to the existing projects that the department is implementing across the country through the Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grants and the Water Service Infrastructure Grants that are allocated annually to district and metropolitan municipalities. At least 91 regional bulk water infrastructure projects are currently under construction at various phases, with 10 already completed. The accomplishment is a clear demonstration of the ANC’s commitment to actively addressing the water crisis by expanding access through building infrastructure to ensure safe, clean, and accessible water for all South Africans.
Over the past thirty years of our democratic breakthrough, the ANC-led government has built massive water and sanitation infrastructure; however, many of our local municipalities as water service authorities have failed to operate and maintain this critical infrastructure. In many instances, these water services have failed to meet the minimum national norms and standards as set out in the Blue, Green, and No Drop regulations.
For instance, the 2022 Green Drop and the 2023 Blue Drop assessments painted a bleak picture, where 67 of the 144 water service authorities were in a critical state while another 38 were in poor state, which therefore means 73% of the country’s water services authorities were either critical or poor.
As the African National Congress, we believe the existing compliance regulations and consequence management mechanisms are not effective. That is why we are now advocates for stricter penalties for municipalities that fail to meet Blue, Green, and No Drop standards.
Stricter penalties for municipalities that don’t meet Blue, Green, and No Drop standards will help a lot to resolve the problems in local municipalities, but we also need to look into other options that our government has, like using Section 78 of the Municipal Systems Act, which lets the municipality and communities decide how a municipal service can be provided—either by the municipality itself or by a service provider from outside the municipality. As the African National Congress, we strongly advocate for the establishment of a special purpose vehicle in situations where local municipalities fail to provide adequate water and sanitation services.
Our support for creating a special purpose vehicle does not mean that it will be a long-term solution. Instead, it’s a short- to medium-term way to deal with the problems that are already there. As the African National Congress, we will make sure that any established special purpose vehicle package includes the water service authorities’ investment in building internal capacity through skill training programs and hiring qualified staff. The move is in line with President Ramaphosa’s announcement that his government for this year will prioritise investing in skills development by increasing the production of artisans through TVET colleges.
These and other government efforts will progressively restore good governance and, by implication, improve the management and functionality of water service authorities to better manage their water and sanitation infrastructure.
The African National Congress calls upon Minister Majodina to seize the opportunity opened by President Ramaphosa to commit to investing heavily in the country’s water resources. We are aware that the department has unfunded planned water and sanitation infrastructure projects; it is an opportunity for the department to tap into the more than R940 billion that would be made available over the next three years. We hope that among the planned unfunded water projects are projects that will broaden the country’s water resources, such as desalination projects in coastal areas and wastewater recycling projects, among others.
Lastly, as the African National Congress, we are calling on the department and, generally, the government to move towards alternative technologies that can withstand natural disasters, which have become a regular occurrence in our country, as evidenced by the recent flooding in certain parts of the country, like the Gauteng and the KwaZulu-Natal provinces. It is important that the government enhance its disaster preparedness mechanisms to ensure our water and sanitation infrastructure becomes climate change resilient.
As the African National Congress, we call upon the government to mainstream climate change resilience as part of its solution to fixing the management and functionality of water service authorities.
I thank you.