Water has been a silent risk building up in the background in parts of SA, often overlooked because it was considered somebody else’s problem.

That’s according to Melanie Humphries, head of sustainable solutions at Investec, who adds that owing to ageing infrastructure under strain coupled with inadequate maintenance, ‘water security is now as critical as energy security’.

In his 2026 State of the Nation Address in February, President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged the urgency of water security by launching the National Water Crisis Committee, modelled on the National Energy Crisis Committee that tackled electricity load shedding.

Essentially, the business interruption through water outages – including water throttling and scheduled water shedding – is comparable to Eskom’s load shedding.

‘The risk and impact are the same in terms of what it feels like on the ground for corporates and businesses,’ says Humphries. ‘But there’s a crucial structural difference: while the energy crisis was about insufficient power generation capacity, Gauteng’s water crisis isn’t the result of water scarcity or bulk water shortages. It’s about the inability of that treated potable water to reach its intended destination.

‘In short, it’s about getting water from the dam to the tap,’ she says.

According to National Treasury, overall water losses in SA’s eight metropolitan municipalities reached R8.66 billion in 2023/24, with an average loss of 34.6%.

The City of Joburg lost 35% of its water, costing R2.9 billion in financial losses. While eThekwini recorded the highest percentage of lost water (53.8%), followed by Mangaung (49%), the City of Cape Town was the best performer with only 5.9% water loss.

‘Over half of the water purchased by eThekwini cannot be billed,’ states Treasury’s latest State of Local Government Finances and Financial Management report.

‘These significant losses point to systemic challenges such as ageing infrastructure, frequent pipe bursts, illegal connections or weak monitoring and control mechanisms.’

From a structural perspective, load shedding was a simpler problem to fix than the current water challenges, because it centred on align-ing bulk energy generation with bulk offtake, explains Humphries. While corporates were able to install their own onsite PV solar power generation, the regulations around onsite water abstraction are much more complex and stringent. Any business wanting to install water harvesting, borehole or desalination systems must be aware that the water they take out could affect those around them.

‘Therefore, if you participate in groundwater extraction, you need to monitor and report on this and understand your role in balancing the water cycle and within the broader community,’ says Humphries.

According to Ferrial Adam, executive director of community action organisation WaterCAN, it’s difficult to go completely off-grid with water, because you can’t focus solely on abstraction but have to consider your wastewater and sanitation too.

The organisation has called for a collaborative approach to water security that includes the public and private sectors, civil society, communities and academia to rebuild trust and remind everyone they’re all part of a single system.

A number of big corporates have committed to running their own closed-loop water systems (such as Anglo American striving for ‘waterless mines’) or achieving ‘net zero water’ (for example Woolworths, SA Breweries, and Growthpoint).

Local corporates are increasingly moving the subject of water risk from ESG (environment, social and governance) conversations into boardroom strategy.

Helen Hulett, CEO of water-security advisory Andwatr, says it’s important to understand where your water comes from.

‘Companies need to go far enough beyond the fence line to manage the risks they don’t control,’ she says. ‘If the real constraint sits in municipal treatment, reticulation losses, wastewater capacity or catchment water quality, then internal fixes alone will not protect the business.’

Hulett’s advice to corporates is to start with strong internal efficiency and buffers, then collaborate beyond the fence through outcome-based programmes with clear governance and measurable performance, rather than ad hoc contributions.

‘Everything that we have told companies about the water risk in Gauteng over the past decade has basically materialised,’ says Alex McNamara, head of environment at the National Business Initiative (NBI). ‘Unfortunately, it hasn’t yet translated into the action that we need. On the upside, the dams are currently full in the Vaal system, so this is not a drought-related problem.’

As in any semi-arid country, SA’s water consumption and demand need to be reduced, but McNamara notes that in Joburg what needs to be addressed is maintenance of the water infrastructure, operations, management and investment.

Corporate SA is being encouraged to play its part by getting its own house in order – even in simple ways.

‘Ensure that your business and employees are using water wisely,’ says McNamara. ‘Check for leaks; that will save money straight away. Pay your water bill on time, so that you become part of the solution and strengthen the financial position of our water utilities.’

Crucially, municipalities need to reduce their non-revenue water by fixing the leaks, collect the money that is owed to them and turn water provision into a financially self-sustaining function.

However, Joburg Water doesn’t receive all the revenue it collects from selling water and therefore doesn’t have the incentive to optimise its operations.

In order to run water as a business, it’s been suggested that Joburg ring-fence its water budget so it can reinvest its water revenue into maintenance and infrastructure repairs instead of spending it on non-water related issues.

There’s a lot the private sector can do to help bolster SA’s water security, and this goes well beyond money. ‘Finance is the easy part,’ says Humphries.

‘The more difficult part is coming up with the right technical solutions, as we’ve seen with our corporate clients.’

As a first step, she recommends that companies start measuring and mapping their water use, for example through smart metering, leak detection and knowing their water quality before installing any water reuse systems. Often those who invest early in water resilience don’t just mitigate risk but open up new revenue and create a competitive advantage.

Regular measuring and accurate data are paramount here. ‘You cannot manage water risk if you are only measuring it once a month. Water outages are an operational risk, and operational risks needs near real-time intelligence,’ says Hulett.

‘Data turns water resilience from a vague narrative into a quantified business case: downtime avoided, yield protected and cost avoided. It also enables performance-based contracting because outcomes can be verified.’

According to Hulett, SA’s private sector should focus on demand management, delivery capability and investable project pipelines to ease the country’s water crisis.

‘Businesses can reduce demand quickly through efficiency, loss reduction and reuse, which immediately takes pressure off stressed municipal systems and protects production,’ she says.

Corporates can bring more to the table in terms of execution capacity, stronger procurement discipline and performance management to get projects delivered, suggests Hullet.

Of course, finance still matters, but Hulett finds it most powerful when it backs clearly defined, measurable interventions with credible operations and maintenance, so that projects move from ‘good ideas’ to bankable programmes.

‘We need real expertise in the room, not fake “war rooms” or subcommittees with fancy names,’ says WaterCAN’s Adam.

She is calling for practical solutions, such as detailing which reservoirs need fixing and which pipelines must be replaced. Adam advises that to avoid potential misunderstandings down the line, cross-sector collaboration and partnerships are necessary so parties can move beyond blame to find solutions to any problems. ‘What we need is transparency and accountability, so everyone can see who is doing what.’

McNamara suggests that companies join the existing efforts of the NBI, whose Technical Assistance, Mentorship and Development programme supports municipalities under government’s Operation Vulindlela 2.

‘We support both the City of Joburg and eThekwini on water, as well as the Platform for a Water Secure Gauteng,’ he says.

‘We’ve seen strong gains with the national energy and logistics crisis committees, where business has been instrumental in the implementation of solutions. There’s no reason the private sector can’t do the same with water.’

By Silke Colquhoun
Images: iStock