The commission's warning serves as a further wake-up call to municipalities and water utilities over the crumbling state of water supply and reticulation in several parts of the country.

The SA Human Rights Commission fears that a water supply "disaster" is looming in several parts of KwaZulu-Natal unless municipalities are forced to fix and maintain their dilapidated pipelines, pumps and other crucial water supply infrastructure.

The commission's warning serves as a further wake-up call to municipalities and water utilities over the crumbling state of water supply and reticulation in several parts of the country due to decades of neglect and a widespread failure to set aside sufficient funds to maintain infrastructure and equipment.

In short, there was a price to pay for neglecting to service and repair South Africa's creaking water supply automobile.

Ultimately, though, these delayed service and emergency repair bills would have to be paid for by taxpayers, ratepayers and businesses - possibly in the form of a new government infrastructure grant, municipal special levies or further water tariff hikes.

'Pervasive neglect, disregard and contempt'

The commission's 155-page report, released in Durban on 18 September, also calls for more urgent efforts to: tackle corruption, illegal water connections, threats from "business forum" construction mafias and the "pervasive sense of neglect, disregard and in some instances, contempt, for people's suffering and their attempts to engage with their municipality...