The government aims to have a new state-owned entity (SOE) consolidating non-municipal water infrastructure assets such as dams and land fully established by 2026, President Cyril Ramaphosa says.
Ramaphosa assented to the Water Resources Infrastructure Bill in 2024, paving the way for the establishment of the National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency, which will also be responsible for streamlining the country’s water resource management, generating private sector investment in the sector and improving water quality in SA.
Addressing the National Water and Sanitation Indaba on Thursday, Ramaphosa said the water agency would replicate the success of Sanral, which was able to “lay out roads throughout our country much more effectively”.
“By next year, we hope to finalise the establishment of the National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency, one of the most significant reforms coming to the sector to date. This new agency will bring strategic alignment, consistency and accountability to the various institutional arrangements for water stewardship that have to date proven to be less than ideal,” he said.
In a presentation to the indaba, department of water & sanitation director-general Sean Phillips said the agency would enable more finance to be raised from markets for state water projects that require an estimated R256bn annually from 2023 to 2050, totalling R7.2-trillion, to achieve adequate water security and access.
“The establishment of wall-to-wall catchment agencies will result in improved management of water catchments, which is key to increasing raw water security. All six have been gazetted and boards appointed,” Phillips said.
SA’s water infrastructure has deteriorated dramatically, as evidenced by acute water shortages affecting municipalities in Gauteng, as well as Polokwane in Limpopo and eThekwini.
Ramaphosa condemned “water mafias”, which have exploited the crisis in collaboration with municipal officials.
“There are people who make it their business to go and cut water lines to create businesses for themselves. That is the criminality that has now entered the water space. And this is what we must collectively talk about here and find ways of bringing that to an end,” Ramaphosa said.
“They make sure that there is failure by the local authorities to deliver water, leading to the alternative of relying on them to transport water, because they make money out of transporting water. There is no dignity for our people to be standing alongside the streets for water from a truck where somebody is making money,” he said.
“At a local government level, financial mismanagement, insufficient revenue collection systems and high levels of physical water losses are compounding existing service delivery problems,” he added.
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