The crisis facing Johannesburg's water systems is not only widespread structural decline, but a massive financial crisis where there is no money to pay Rand Water, contractors and repair crews.
Johannesburg Water owes its contractors R265 million. It owes bulk water supplier Rand Water R377 million. To fix the 43 structurally leaking reservoirs in the city is going to cost in excess of R1.3 billion. Water losses for the last eight months stand at R2.4 billion.
Now Rand Water is demanding a deposit of more than R2 billion to secure future payments from the city. This is a R1 billion more than JW's capital expenditure budget. JW owed Rand Water R1.18 billion in January, and even though 60% of this was paid, the outstanding balance is R377 million as of this month. The City's average monthly account from Rand Water is around R800 million.
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Besides the money owed to bulk supplier Rand Water, a JW report, dated 13 February 2026, to the Presidential Johannesburg Working Group (PJWG), laid bare the full extent of infrastructure challenges that the City's water system faces.
Of the City's 98 reservoirs, only 55 were in good working order. Only two reservoirs were being worked on currently and a further 15 have been prioritised for implementation in Phase 1 of the 2024/25 and 2025/26 financial years.
The Leaking Reservoirs Status Report noted that 25 leaking reservoirs will be prioritised for Phase 2 once Phase 1 has been completed.
The two leaking reservoirs being worked on currently are Hurst Hill 2 (at a cost of R36 million) and the Meadowlands reservoirs (R78 million). They were at less than 20% completion. Work on the Aeroton, Dunkeld, Jabulani, Ennerdale and Alexander Park reservoirs has either not started or is currently standing at less than 5% completion.
Those under procurement were: Yeoville, Power Park, Crown Gardens, Modderhill, Lenasia, Marlboro, Helderkruin, Linden, Erand, Hurst Hill 1, Chiawelo, Blairgowrie, Rabie Ridge and Bryanston. No work has started.
However, at the bottom of the report werr these words: "The program is dependent on the availability of funding for the objectives to be realised."
And therein lies the problem, said WaterCAN executive director Dr Ferrial Adam. "There is no money for these projects. The City is still sweeping money out of JW's accounts."
"The unavoidable conclusion is that neither JW nor the City of Johannesburg are currently capable of managing the City's spiralling water and associated debt crisis. This is why the President's water committee must intervene. JW cannot reliably assess a plan around its own revenue due to the continued use of sweeping money from its account," Adam said.
"You cannot repair, refurbish and stabilise a collapsing system when JW's revenue is treated as a floating pool for other needs," she said.
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While the payments to Rand Water and contractors were a constant problem, said Adam, it also meant that the debt faced by JW compounded the situation and meant that there was a bigger backlog in projects and maintenance.
"If they cannot get their budget ringfenced, then all the projects the mayor and the deputy president are promising are just on paper.
"The immediate problems of the Commando system and Selby have not been fixed, meaning they are always in crisis management," said Adam.
