South Africa has announced the establishment of a National Water Crisis Committee, to be chaired by President Cyril Ramaphosa, as government moves to elevate its response to persistent water supply disruptions. The new structure will be supported by more than R156 billion (about US$9.8 billion) in public funding for water and sanitation infrastructure alone over the next three years.
The announcement was made during the State of the Nation Address, where the President positioned water as one of the country’s most urgent national challenges. Drawing on lessons from the electricity sector, he said a similar governance model would now be applied to water. “Using the same approach, we will now elevate our response to the water crisis to a National Water Crisis Committee, which I will chair,” he said.
The committee is intended to function as a single coordinating body, bringing together existing programmes and ensuring faster, more decisive intervention. It will deploy technical specialists and national resources to municipalities struggling with chronic system failures, with the aim of stabilising supply and improving operational performance.
Communities in major urban centres such as Johannesburg, as well as in parts of Gauteng, have experienced repeated outages, low pressure and infrastructure breakdowns. Similar challenges persist in smaller towns and rural areas, where residents have relied on water tankers for extended periods. The President acknowledged growing public frustration, particularly in Gauteng, where service delivery protests have intensified.
Ramaphosa attributed the crisis largely to weak planning and inadequate maintenance at municipal level, emphasising that the challenge is not a lack of water resources but the failure to deliver water to households and businesses. He warned that government would intervene where necessary and confirmed that criminal charges have already been laid against 56 municipalities, with further action planned against individual municipal managers who violate water legislation.
The President added that projects such as the Lesotho Highlands Water Project and the Ntabelanga Dam are advancing, reinforcing water’s importance to economic development and public health.
