Ramaphosa urged to prioritise water crisis in State of the Nation Address

Water activists and experts are calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to urgently address the country’s deepening water crisis in his State of the Nation Address on Thursday, warning that failure to act could result in economic collapse and social instability. The calls come as communities across the country face water shortages and outages lasting more than a week, with infrastructure deterioration reaching critical levels and sewage contaminating water sources. Dr Ferrial Adam of WaterCan said the president must move beyond ambitious promises and focus on the immediate infrastructure crisis affecting communities nationwide.

The country faces dual challenges of water quality and quantity that require urgent presidential attention. “Across the country, half of our drinking water systems are not fit for drinking and almost 60-70% of the wastewater treatment works are critical and spewing sewage into our rivers and streams,” Adam said. She stressed that communities need concrete action rather than announcements about future projects.

“The president needs to give his attention to that and stop giving us wild promises about big projects and saying, you know, this dam is being built and that bridge is being built because right now on the ground, we don’t see any of that,” Adam said. Among the key demands activists are making ahead of Thursday’s address is a call for Ramaphosa to declare a national disaster on water infrastructure. Adam emphasised that this declaration should be accompanied by ring-fenced budgets dedicated specifically to water and sanitation.

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“We want Ramaphosa to call for a national disaster on infrastructural issues on water,” she said, adding that the president must also respond to recent controversial statements by the Minister of Water Affairs, who claimed the crisis is not her department’s responsibility. Adam warned that decades of neglected maintenance of critical infrastructure, including reservoirs, pump stations and water pipes, have created a national emergency that the president can no longer ignore in his address to the nation.

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