The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is not of the view that the President should declare a National State of Disaster based on the deterioration of waste water treatment facilities to facilitate an urgent revamp of sanitation infrastructure across the country. Municipalities are allocated funding in terms of the Division of Revenue Act, and various grants from national government which are all intended ...

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has already commissioned projects in all Water Service Authorities (WSAs) to do situational assessments of water supply infrastructure and reasons for service delivery challenges. The outcomes of these assessments show that the backlogs are due to the significant growth in the number of households on the fringes of communities that have not been connected to existing municipal ...

1.  The Renosterberg Local Municipality (LM) requested support from the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and The Northern Cape Department of CoGHSTA regarding urgent repairs and maintenance of its sewer reticulation system and pump stations. This assistance was required due to financial obligations and constraints that the municipality was experiencing.

A condition assessment was conducted by DWS, MISA and CoGHSTA and based on ...

Up until 2020/21 the Department was tracking Exempted Micro Enterprises and Qualifying Small Enterprises and was not tracking procurement expenditure in terms of the designated groups. The Department commenced tracking procurement expenditure relating to Historically Disadvantaged Individuals (HDIs) from 2021/22.

The Department of Water and Sanitation has established a Water Supply Joint Operation Committee (JOC) together with Rand Water and all the three Metropolitan Municipalities (City of Ekurhuleni, City of Johannesburg, and City of Tshwane) in the Gauteng province. The JOC is a technical committee that has been meeting daily for the past two months to review the system yield and work out ...

a)  The total amount in outstanding debts is owed by municipalities to water boards and the Department’s Water Trading Entity as at the end of September 2023 was R26.7 billion. The Water Boards are currently owed R18.3 billion and the Water Trading Entity is currently owed R8.4 billion by the municipalities.

b) Steps taken by the Department to mitigate the growing debt crisis to ...

The table below indicates total number of reported bulk water pipes in terms of infrastructure that is owned and operated by Water Boards that had burst and/or were leaking in the 2022-23 financial year.

The Department released the Green Drop 2023 Watch Report in June 2023 which is an interim report to keep the public and stakeholders updated and informed on the progress made by municipalities to remedy failing dysfunctional wastewater infrastructure and compliance.

1. The Department received corrective action plans (CAPS) from municipalities for 189 of the 334 wastewater systems (i.e. 57% response rate). By June 2023, only ...

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has reprioritised the allocated Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant and Water Services Infrastructure Grant towards addressing the emergency needs of repair, refurbish and where applicable upgrade water services infrastructure which were failing to perform at optimal levels. The infrastructure is owned and operated by municipalities and refurbishment projects are implemented by these municipalities as Implementing Agents. This is ...

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is overseeing interventions to alleviate current water shortages in Sekhukhune District Municipality, Capricorn District Municipality and Polokwane Local Municipality. The interim measures implemented in the areas include emergency relief measures as follows:

• 20 water tankers which were provided to Sekhukhune District Municipality. 1690 water tanks have been installed in Sekhukhune as a short-term measure to ensure communities ...