The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the Claude Leon Chair in Earth Justice and Stewardship at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) have launched a Water Rights Tracker (WRT), laying bare the country's water crisis.

The five-year research project profiled all 144 water services authorities across the nine provinces of South Africa, bringing together a wide range of national, provincial and municipal data to create a clear picture of water service delivery across the country.

During the launch on Wednesday, hosted by the Wits School of Law, Wits Claude Leon Chair for Earth Justice and Stewardship Professor Tracy-Lynn Field explained that the WRT was established to provide a comprehensive, evidence-based view of how South Africa is progressing towards the realisation of the constitutional right to water.

South Africa generates large volumes of information about water services through government departments, regulatory bodies, municipalities, oversight institutions and research organisations. However, this information is often fragmented and difficult to interpret as a whole.

The WRT addresses this challenge by consolidating and analysing data from multiple sources to review whether South Africa is progressively realising the right of access to sufficient water for all people.

Some of the numerous authoritative sources include the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), National Treasury, the Auditor-General South Africa, municipal integrated development plans and water services development plans, SAHRC investigations, Parliamentary oversight processes and Judicial decisions relating to water rights.

The result is one of the most comprehensive assessments of water services and water rights performance available in South Africa, revealing widespread failures in water service delivery and providing a new tool to hold government accountable in realising the constitutional right to water.

Despite significant reforms and investment in water provision, many communities still struggle to access sufficient, safe and affordable water, with communities facing prolonged interruptions to supply, deteriorating infrastructure, unsafe drinking water and inadequate support for households unable to afford basic services.

The WRT, by examining access, affordability, adequacy, quality and efficiency, alongside the financial, technical and institutional resources available to municipalities, identifies areas where the progressive realisation of the right to water is at risk.

The tracker identifies a series of “red flags” which can assist communities, civil society organisations, government officials and oversight institutions in identifying potential human rights violations and demanding corrective action.

The WRT further provides a new framework for assessing whether the State is meeting its obligation under Section 27 of the Constitution, which guarantees everyone the right to access sufficient water and requires the State to take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of this right.

Drawing on 85 indicators across five categories, the research considers whether households can access water, as well as what municipalities and other State institutions are doing to progressively improve water services.

It highlights the importance of effective policies, adequate financial and human resources, infrastructure maintenance, transparent oversight and meaningful responses to regulatory failures.

The researchers also emphasise the need for better publicly accessible data, particularly on the frequency and duration of water interruptions, to enable more meaningful monitoring of whether communities receive adequate and reliable services.

It is also intended to support the SAHRC in carrying out its constitutional mandate of monitoring the realisation of the right to access sufficient water, while equipping communities, researchers, civil society and decision-makers with evidence to demand improvements.

“Access to sufficient water is not a privilege or a political promise. It is a constitutional right. The WRT offers a means of measuring whether that right is being realised, identifying where failures are occurring and ensuring that those responsible for delivering water services can be held to account,” Field noted.

For the SAHRC, the tracker enhances and strengthens the monitoring and oversight role as it tracks and assesses the State's fulfilment of its obligation regarding the delivery of water, enabling the commission to foster accountability and transparency, said SAHRC commissioner Dr Henk Boshoff.

The WRT will ensure that knowledge-based tools are deployed to tackle the systemic water challenges in the country and enable the commission to make pointed policy recommendations.

“The recent incident in Bronkhorstspruit where residents have been afflicted by gastrointestinal illness owing to exposure to contaminated water from the Bronkhorstspruit water treatment works underscores the fact that failure to deliver quality water, is not just another administrative mishap, it has real-life consequences,” he said.

“The water crisis is impacting lives and livelihoods. We cannot afford to bury our heads in the sand, but we must tackle the water crisis head-on.”

As South Africa approaches its 2026 local government elections, the findings provide an important opportunity to place water services and constitutional accountability at the centre of public debate.

Field said that cross-cutting recommendations emerging from the data include protecting the operational independence and stability of municipal water services; establishing a coordinated population and household data protocol for water services planning involving Stats SA, the DWS, municipalities and National Treasury; reviewing the long-term sustainability of the municipal water services funding model; and, in terms of free basic water, simplifying, standardising and digitising the indigent registration processes while improving proactive identification of qualifying households.

“Everyone in South Africa has a right to sufficient water and we need to make sure that that it is realised across the country. Our debates must be around the systemic drivers of water services dysfunction. We must have evidence to support that debate. Further, we need a whole-of-government and a whole-of-society approach,” she concluded.