The water emergency in South Africa has escalated to “crisis proportions” and warrants formal declaration as a national disaster.
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) issued this warning on Thursday, as communities across the country endured prolonged shortages that crippled households, schools, and healthcare facilities.
The call comes amid rolling water outages in major urban centres, including Johannesburg, widely regarded as one of Africa’s greatest commercial and financial hubs, where taps have run dry for days and, in some areas, weeks, disrupting businesses, industries and daily life in the economic heartbeat of the continent.
In the statement, the commission said it is deeply concerned by the “ongoing water challenges engulfing the country”, with communities in various provinces battling to access water despite it being a fundamental human right entrenched in Section 27 of the Constitution.
“Water is the lifeblood of human existence and plays a critical role in the achievement of several rights, such as healthcare, children’s rights, and education,” the commission said.
Educational outcomes negatively affected
The SAHRC said it has previously observed that the absence of water in schools negatively affects educational outcomes, as learners are forced to miss classes, while disruptions in supply at hospitals and clinics directly impinge on the right to healthcare.
It added that the lack of access to water “disproportionately affects women and girl-children and compromises the attainment of gender equality”.
According to the commission, a range of structural and systemic failures continue to drive the crisis, including insufficient budget allocation for the maintenance of water infrastructure, inadequate planning for population growth, high levels of water losses beyond acceptable norms, shortages of skilled personnel in water units, and the vandalism of infrastructure alongside the emergence of water mafias.
“These challenges are more pronounced at the municipal level, yet it is the sphere charged with delivering water to households and communities,” the commission said, warning of a “downward spiral regarding water management and distribution”.
Data from the South African Water Justice Tracker—a partnership between the SAHRC and the University of the Witwatersrand—supports the commission’s findings, showing that the water crisis is not a localised problem but a widespread national phenomenon.
The tracker identifies ageing infrastructure, inadequate funding models, skills deficits, and poor intergovernmental coordination as key drivers behind the dysfunction of many water services authorities.
Mobilisation of emergency funds
Citing the dire state of affairs, the SAHRC said it is empowered by Section 13(1)(a)(i) of the South African Human Rights Commission Act to recommend that the government declare the water crisis a national disaster in terms of the Disaster Management Act.
The commission will write to the head of the National Disaster Management Centre to formally convey this recommendation.
It said a national disaster declaration would enable the mobilisation of emergency funds and improve coordination across government but cautioned that it must not become “a breeding ground for corruption, malfeasance, and embezzlement of funds”.
The SAHRC called for strong oversight and for the government to intensify preventative maintenance, rehabilitate critical infrastructure, fast-track bulk water projects, and roll out community campaigns on water conservation, warning that only a broad, integrated, and coordinated intervention can turn the situation around.
