Elections on water: Another ‘decade of decline’ in Limpopo as water access tightens
The province has the lowest water access in South Africa, while all 10 Water Services Authorities (WSAs) are rated poor or critical by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS).
The DA in Limpopo has expressed deep concern over the province's declining access to water, which has dropped from 79% in 2015 to just 63% in 2025, according to a Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) report. This makes Limpopo the region with the lowest water access in South Africa, with nearly half of its 6.4 million residents without the vital resource.
The DA leader, Jacques Smalle, attributes this issue to a decade of declining service delivery under the ANC-led government, despite billions of rand being spent on ambitious water infrastructure projects across the province's five regions. The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) had previously identified insufficient skills, poor planning, weak execution, and failure to properly spend water grants as the underlying causes of the water crisis.
The current governance crisis is further exacerbated by financial mismanagement, with the Department of Water and Sanitation placing all 10 Water Services Authorities (WSAs) in Limpopo among South Africa's 105 worst-performing water authorities.
Brief written by urgent.news from The Citizen's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
