watercanlatest news & developments
The findings of the Green Drop 2025 report, released alongside the latest Blue Drop and No Drop progress assessments, highlight mounting strain across the country’s water sector. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy

SA is moving backwards with water, says WaterCAN

The latest Green Drop report shows how the country’s rivers are being “turned into sewage channels”

Joburg mayor Dada Morero, alongside MMC Jack Sekwaila is addressing the ongoing water challenges facing Johannesburg in a media briefing at the Brixton Reservoir.

Editorial: Taps – and residents’ patience – run dry

As President Cyril Ramaphosa prepared to present his State of the Nation address (Sona) on Thursday, his second in the government of national unity (GNU), residents of some suburbs across Joburg were protesting about the lack of water.   The crisis has left no one untouched. Businesses, forced to shut their doors as the crisis deepens, […]

From Melville to Midrand, Johannesburg residents are bearing the social and economic costs of prolonged water outages. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy

Residents ‘angry and exhausted’ as Joburg’s water outages drag on

From Melville to Midrand, Johannesburg residents are bearing the social and economic costs of prolonged water outages, with WaterCAN calling for transparent daily briefings and direct public communication from authorities

Foul: Pigs root in sludge in Emfuleni municipality. (Photo: Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Unsafe water found in taps, water storage tanks across South Africa, citizen tests reveal

Scientists tested South Africa’s water. What they found was alarming: E. coli, sewage pollution and unsafe drinking water reaching directly into homes

Residents, community organisations and civil society groups across Johannesburg have united to demand urgent action to end the city’s deepening water crisis. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Joburg residents unite to demand action over city’s water emergency

Residents, civil society groups and business leaders call for immediate action to fix the city’s collapsing water system

Pupils from Douglas Mbopa Senior Secondary School in the Eastern Cape, test water using WaterCAN kits. (Photo: WaterCAN)

School sampling tests find storage tanks contain unsafe water

Of the 53 schools that uploaded valid data, 23 returned results showing the water was unsafe to drink

The Klipspruit river polluted by sewage and mine waste in Soweto. (File photo by Delwyn Verasamy)

Environmental injustice is becoming the new normal – we must resist it

On World Environment Day, we must challenge – in word and deed – the assumption that environmental issues are somehow separate from daily life

Johannesburg Water said on Thursday that its systems had been affected by “various network challenges”, primarily because of the high demand exceeding available capacity. (Photo: Delwyn Verasamy)

Johannesburg high court shut due to severe water shortage

Bulk water supplier Rand Water warned that its systems were ‘dropping fast’ because of extremely high consumption

More than 50 000 litres of sewage spews into South Africa’s rivers every second, the result of a failure to maintain infrastructure and outdated wastewater treatment plants that are unable to handle current volumes. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Wastewater plants dump 50 000 litres of sewage into SA rivers every second

More than 70% of the country’s neglected or aged wastewater treatment plants are not operating at optimal levels

Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero. (Lubabalo Lesolle/Gallo Images)

Dada Morero: Joburg is facing a severe water crisis

The executive mayor blamed drought but water experts say the city’s reservoir levels are ‘leaking to critical thresholds’

Africa’s infrastructure financing gap needs to be bridged. Photo: Adrian Greeman/Construction Photography/Avalon/Getty Images

Lesotho Highlands Water Project maintenance: There will be water but use it sparingly

Contingencies are in place for the maintenance shutdown, the water and sanitation department says

Senzo Mchunu. (M&G)

From water to police: Senzo Mchunu’s legacy and Pemmy Majodina’s new job

Mchunu has left big shoes that need to be filled, according to experts

Water testing in Carolina. Photo by Imminent Mabuza, courtesy of WaterCAN.

Struggle for clean water continues as 14-year crisis in Mpumalanga township worsens

In 2012 the municipality was ordered to fix Carolina’s water problems, but has still not done so

Only a collective response will ensure water security and the per person use to a below a 170-litre future

Daily struggles and uncertain solutions as water chaos escalates

South Africans must learn to adapt, say experts, warning that the crisis will surpass load-shedding

Data governance provides evidence-based decision-making that improves the quality of service delivery

Closed valve not behind 12-day outage, says Rand Water

The water shortage was caused by ‘an incident’ at the Eikenhof pump station, the bulk water supplier said

Rand Water’s Eikenhof pump station. (Papi Morake/Gallo Images)

Joburg Water says reservoirs are filling after parts of city go 10 days without water

The water crisis has largely been caused by a power outage that affected the main pump station

In early February, AfriForum, together with several other organisations, businesses and community members, removed more than 1 623 tonnes of water lettuce from the Vaal River. Photo: AfriForum

State sets up task team to advise on water lettuce clogging Vaal River

The team ‘has to be in it for the long haul’ and the sewage in the water, which feeds the alien aquatic plants, must be dealt with

In early February, AfriForum, together with several other organisations, businesses and community members, removed more than 1 623 tonnes of water lettuce from the Vaal River. Photo: AfriForum

Vaal River residents say water lettuce is ‘national crisis’

If allowed to pass the Vaal River Barrage, the plant has access to a journey of about 1 000km of the middle and lower Vaal river, the Bloemhof Dam and then into the Orange river

An employee with the City of Tshwane collects a sample of water from a municipal tank truck in Hammanskraal on May 23, 2023, where a cholera outbreak, including surrounding areas, killed 31 people.
(Photo by MICHELE SPATARI/AFP via Getty Images)

SA water woes must not be ‘exaggerated’, says Mchunu

The minister is adamant the country is not experiencing a crisis, despite about half the water in our systems being unsafe for drinking

Rand Water is already over the limit for water it can extract from the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) and it would be irresponsible to increase it for Gauteng, said the director general of the department of water and sanitation.(Photo by Deaan Vivier/Beeld/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

Gauteng’s treated water availability is tight, says water and sanitation department

Extracting too much water from the Vaal River system will result in a worse crisis