The South African government is establishing a National Water Crisis Committee, to be chaired by President Cyril Ramaphosa, to tackle the country’s long-running water crisis.

While longer-term reforms are under way, led by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), there is a need to address the immediate crisis where water outages are currently being experienced.

“Water is now the single most important issue for many people in South Africa, from large cities like Johannesburg to smaller towns like Knysna and rural areas like Giyani,” Ramaphosa said during his State of the Nation Address (Sona) earlier this month.

He likened the approach of the new water committee to that of the National Energy Crisis Committee, established three years ago to enable a focused national response to the daily power cuts experienced across the country at the time.

“We overcame what seemed like an insurmountable challenge by adopting a clear plan and delivering on it. Using the same approach, we will now elevate our response to the water crisis to a National Water Crisis Committee, which I will chair.”

The new committee is expected to merge all existing efforts into a single coordinating body, and deploy technical experts and resources from national government to municipalities facing water challenges.

“It will ensure that action is taken swiftly and effectively to address the problem.”

This followed weeks-long water outages, inadequate and unreliable access to basic services, including water, in many suburbs across Gauteng, which triggered community protests earlier this month.

The South African Human Rights Commission previously called for the water outages to be declared a national disaster, arguing that the challenge had reached crisis proportions.

“Poor planning and inadequate maintenance of water systems by many municipalities are the main cause of the problems we are going through now and are the reason that taps often run dry,” Ramaphosa said, noting that the real challenge lies not in the availability of water, but in getting water to people’s taps.

A far-reaching overhaul is now under way, implemented by the DWS and other stakeholders to address the root causes of dysfunction in many municipalities.

The reforms include the Water Services Amendment Bill, which will enable the DWS to hold water service providers accountable for their performance and withdraw their licence if they fail to deliver.

Government has already criminally charged 56 municipalities for failing to meet their obligations, with plans to charge municipal managers in their personal capacity for violating the National Water Act.

To address the critical challenge of many metropolitans, cities and towns using water revenue for other purposes instead of using it to upgrade and maintain water infrastructure, government has introduced a new R54-billion incentive for metropolitans to reform their water, sanitation and electricity services.

This will ensure that water revenue is reinvested directly into fixing pipes, reservoirs and pumping stations.

Within the next few months, government will also finalise a revised White Paper on Local Government, aimed at ensuring a functioning and effective local government system.

“The White Paper will reimagine the way that local government works. The current system is too complex and fragmented, expecting even small and weak municipalities to take on many responsibilities,” he commented.

“We will ensure that senior officials in local government have the required qualifications and are appointed through an independent process free from political interference.

“Where municipalities fail, we will strengthen the ability of national government to intervene more quickly and to direct corrective measures in the interests of serving our people better.”