Companies are responding by expanding on-site storage, drilling boreholes where viable, installing treatment systems, recycling wastewater and improving consumption monitoring. The shift resembles the earlier move towards private power resilience, with businesses seeking alternatives to dependence on a single public utility network.
Government acknowledges that water interruptions are affecting communities and economic activity across several municipalities. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s National Water Action Plan, released in July, identifies failing municipal systems, weak maintenance, fragmented accountability and inadequate reinvestment of water revenues among the structural causes of unreliable supply.
The plan aims to increase infrastructure investment, draw in private-sector participation, strengthen regulation of water services. It also proposes ring-fencing water revenues so money collected from users can be directed towards maintaining pipes, reservoirs, pumping stations and treatment facilities.
Government has committed R156 billion to water and sanitation infrastructure over three years. The programme covers upgrades and new bulk infrastructure, while reforms target bette...