The Department of Water and Sanitation wants to create a state-owned company as South Africa’s water infrastructure collapses.

The department’s latest Blue Drop Watch Report noted that the quality of South Africa’s drinking water is disastrous.

The report said that only 38% of water systems achieved excellent microbiological quality, whilst 11% received good microbiological quality.

Therefore, 51% of South Africa’s drinking water has poor or bad microbiological quality.

In addition, the report said that 71% of plants did not achieve chemical compliance levels, with only 16% and 14% having excellent and good water quality, respectively.

Amidst the country’s failing water infrastructure, the department is working on legislation to create a state-owned to work on the issue.

According to a government gazette, the Draft National Water Resource Infrastructure Agency Water Bill is heading to parliament.

The draft bill calls for the creation of the South African National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency Limited as a state-owned company.

The bill was initially published for public comment in September 2022, with the deadlines extended into early 2023.

According to Sabinet, the draft bill aims to:

• Provide for the incorporation and establishment of the South African National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency Limited as a state-owned company and major public entity owned and controlled by the State to administer, fund, finance, provide, operate, maintain and provide advisory services in respect of national water resources infrastructure in accordance with sections 10, 11, 24, 27(1)(b) and 27(2) of the Constitution and national policy;

• Provide for the transfer of assets and certain liabilities to the South African National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency Limited from the Department of Water and Sanitation and from the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA);

• Provide for the disestablishment of the TCTA; and

• Provide for matters connected therewith.

The new state-owned company will design, finance, plan, and build all national water resource infrastructure, with the aim of creating a reliable and equitable supply of water in South Africa.

According to the explanatory summary issued by the department, the bill also seeks to do the following:

• Establish a juristic person under the ownership and control of the State in order to administer, fund, finance, develop, operate, maintain, manage and provide advisory services in respect of national water resources infrastructure in an efficient and cost-effective manner to meet the social and economic developmental needs of current and future water users within the framework of national government policy and in accordance with section 27(1)(b) of the Constitution;

• Ensure the sustainable, equitable and reliable supply of water to meet nationally and regionally defined social and economic objectives of government;

• Transfer national government waterworks to the Agency;

• Alleviate the burden on the State’s resources in water resources development; and

• Provide for the disestablishment of the TCTA and the transfer of all its assets, liabilities, rights, obligations, powers, Treaty and non-Treaty functions as a going concern into the Agency.

Other plans

Several other initiatives are in the works to save South Africa’s crumbling water infrastructure, with private-public partnerships picking up pace.

The Water Partnership Office (WPO), which is being created by the state-run Development Bank of Southern Africa, recently received $235 million (R4.4 billion) from the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

The aim of the office is to facilitate private investment into the water industry to prevent its collapse. It hopes to follow in the footsteps of the nation’s electricity procurement agency which has attracted billions in private investment into renewable energy.

In addition, some of South Africa’s biggest mining companies, including Glencore and Anglo American Platinum, are working with the government to create an R27 billion water project to supply major platinum and chrome operations and several hundred thousand people with drinking water.

The project will expand roughly 170 kilometres in the Limpopo province and will is expected to be finished by 2030.

“This could get a new model into South Africa where the government is acting as the regulator and the private entities in partnerships with governmental institutions do more of the work on the ground,” said Lebalelo Water Users Association CEO Bertus Bierman.

“We would like to get construction started early next year.”

Therefore, the new state-owned water company may immediately start working with the private sector if it becomes operational in the near future.

The Draft National Water Resource Infrastructure Agency Bill is below:

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