Put a plug in it
- Ufrieda Ho
Solutions that consider social realities and smart collaboration provide the City of Johannesburg with its best chance to resolve the ongoing water crisis.
When dozens of Joburg citizens united in protest on a Saturday morning in November outside the Braamfontein Civic Centre, demanding action over the dismal state of water management in the City, it marked a tipping point.
“Collective action and grassroots activism are moving the needle on focusing attention on water rights and responsible water use and academia’s role in this is expanding,” says Professor Craig Sheridan, the Claude Leon Foundation Chair in Water Research and Head of Wits H2O, a new working research hub that brings together government, business, academia and civil society with the aim of developing real-world answers to water challenges in South Africa and on the continent.
Sheridan believes that science and research can no longer conveniently absolve themselves from taking a role in civil society action. “This is a positive thing because good science and research, when well communicated and made accessible, offer pathways to solutions, including for authorities,” he says. “At the same time, expert, independent knowledge can deepen the public’s understanding of how the City’s water system works. This boosts people’s critical awareness, which is also how authorities can better be held to account.”
Sheridan refers to recent positive moves that confront the deepening water crisis in the country with a clear-eyed approach. Civil society organisations and academia, collaborating under the Water Community Action Network have motivated for ringfencing the City of Johannesburg’s water revenue, in a call for more transparent and accountable water management.
“Revenue collection for water, along with electricity, are the two biggest income generators for the City. Ringfencing these funds is about appropriate resource allocation for things like restoring and maintaining infrastructure,” says Sheridan. Although it is a key demand, ringfencing is still to be implemented.
A constructed wetland built in a gravel-like bed to establish a microbial consortium using plants that essentially eat chemical components in discarded wastewater.
Facing up to the problem
According to Sheridan, another positive aspect is getting the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) to recognise the benefits of sharing data publicly. The online DWS dashboard gives weekly and monthly information on the City’s daily water consumption and target consumption levels. It also indicates “non-revenue” water, water lost as a result of leaks, burst pipes and theft. Sheridan points out that non-revenue water accounts for a staggeringly high 50% of total water usage.
“Joburg is using 1.7 million litres of water a day with a target of 1.356 million litres. From the dashboard, you can also see the number of leaks reported, those being fixed and those still needing work,” says Sheridan, unpacking snapshot data from the end of October 2025.
The dashboard also includes information such as dam levels and the status of the City’s reservoirs and pumping stations.
“Making this information publicly accessible enables us to understand the pressures on the City’s water systems and also goes some way towards restoring public confidence in the City and its agencies,” he adds. “The water authorities have a problem - society simply does not trust them anymore and people are very upset. Making more data available is an important strategy that allows people to see a fuller picture of what the City is up against.”
Building bridges
Professor Heidi Richards from the School of Chemistry and the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES) is also part of Wits H2O. She agrees that a new role for scientists can involve working with municipalities and civil society more dynamically. “Building stronger working relationships can help guide municipalities to make smarter choices for investing in appropriate technologies and innovation,” she says.
It also helps municipalities tackle problems holistically, which she points out, is currently a glaring blind spot for local authorities and for academia.
“While we are trying to solve problems with our data and analysis, we can sometimes forget to look more deeply at the reality of massive social issues,” she adds.
For instance, illegal dumping into waterways is a huge concern but without basic services like solid waste removal or proper sanitation, many communities have no alternative.
For Richards, these real-world challenges mean that it is critical to draw from multidisciplinary perspectives.
“This is where Wits H2O works so well because we are seeing everything thanks to the input from academics in engineering, chemistry, drama, law, economics and the humanities,” she says. “We are all focused on the same conversation about what happens to our water, raising our voices along with civil society but also working with government.”
Richards concludes: “We need better cohesion, better collaboration between civil society, academia and municipalities because what is coming is a crisis that will impact us all.”
- Ufrieda Ho is a freelance writer.
- This article first appeared in?CURIOS.TY,?a research magazine produced by?Wits Communications?and the?Research Office.
- Read more in the 20thissue, themed #Thrive, which explores what it truly means to flourish — across a lifespan, within communities, and on and with our planet.