Sixty-four percent of the country's sewage and wastewater treatment plants are at 'high or critical' risk of dumping untreated water into rivers and the environment.

Whatever Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda tried to tell Daily Maverick on 19 March 2024, the city finds itself in the midst of a severe water and sanitation crisis. Large parts of the city have been without water in recent weeks, and even after services ostensibly had been fixed, interruptions to the water supply persevered and spread wider, and lasted longer.

And Johannesburg is not alone. Once a reference point for good practice, its regional bulk water provider, Rand Water, warned Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni that its system was at high risk of collapse.

More nationally, in December 2023, the Department of Water and Sanitation's (DWS) Blue and Green Drop reports showed that the declining quality and escalating losses of South Africa's urban water and sanitation infrastructure have escalated in six of the other seven metros and in half of smaller municipalities across the country.

Beyond the metros, residents of a growing number of towns, districts and rural areas lack access to reliable basic services due to dysfunctional infrastructure and management systems.

This has been the case even in many formal settings, over and above where informal facilities like communal toilets and tap stands have been running dry. Some residents...