Thank you to 3500 active citizens who signed on to help fix Joburg’s water infrastructure

WaterCAN delivers water infrastructure budget petition to the Speaker of the City of Joburg, and now we’re waiting for it to be discussed in council

Credit: Yunus Chamda

During the Johannesburg Crises Alliance Summit on Saturday 25 January, WaterCAN, an initiative of OUTA, delivered a petition to the Speaker of the Johannesburg City Council calling for the ringfencing of water revenue to ensure a R3 billion capital spending budget for water utility Joburg Water.

Executive manager of WaterCAN, Dr Ferrial Adam, says this is not just another petition.

“We have followed the legal requirements to ensure this petition is tabled in council during the adjusted budget meeting”, says Adam.

“We are encouraged and welcome the engagement of the Speaker on the WaterCAN petition, and will hold her accountable to her word that this petition, supported by over 3 500 residents, will be discussed in council.”

Ensuring adequate funding for water and sanitation infrastructure is crucial.

“Providing water and sanitation is a core service of the municipality, and access to water is a constitutional right, so we have to ensure adequate funding to Joburg Water to deliver. Water revenue has been distributed through the consolidated pot to fund other parts of the City resulting in the water losses of 47% due to a lack of maintenance and aging infrastructure.”

According to the municipal calendar, the adjusted budget was due to be tabled in January. However, JoburgCAN, another OUTA initiative, as established that this has been delayed.

“Council will be tabling the various entities’ annual reports and applying for an additional loan in January to cover revenue shortfalls, pushing back the mid-term budget meeting to February. This means that the Speaker has time to ensure the petitions commission debates our submission, and brings it to council to debate during the budget session which she committed to do at the summit,” says Julia Fish, JoburgCAN Regional Manager.

The City of Joburg allocated R1.221bn to capital expenditure for Joburg Water in the 2024/25 budget despite the entity stating that it required R3bn. The adjusted budget looks at how the City is functioning and spending the budget against its income and planning. According to the municipal finance management reports, the City is struggling to fund itself with the collection rate slumping to 83.2% against the budget assumption of a 94.7% collection rate.

The City is thus losing approximately R1bn a month to unpaid municipal rates and taxes.

Joburg residents are also awaiting news on the outcome of the billing dispute between the City and Eskom, which resulted in the City running up arrears of billions of rand with no clarity on the way ahead.

“The reality is that the City has to take a strong stance on wasteful and non-core mandate spending. The delivery of water services and investment in maintenance has to take precedence,” says Adam.

WaterCAN and JoburgCAN note that the City Manager’s office costs R1.9bn a year in operational costs (more than Health at R1.5bn), Group Finance costs R6bn (more than Public Safety), Group Information and Communication Technology costs R1bn, “Municipal Entities Accounts” costs R2bn (this is in addition to separate budgets for City Power, Joburg Water, Pikitup, Joburg Roads Agency and nine other entities). We believe there are opportunities for reprioritisation.

More information

See more about the WaterCAN and JoburgCAN petition to rewrite the Joburg Water budget here.

Please click for Sound Clip here.

About WaterCAN

WaterCAN is a dedicated environmental organisation committed to preserving and protecting South Africa’s water resources. With a mission to promote responsible water management and raise awareness about water quality, the organisation empowers communities to become proactive stewards of their local water sources. If you would like to support our work, kindly Donate Here.

About JoburgCAN

JoburgCAN is an initiative of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) to build a brighter future for Johannesburg. Read more on JoburgCAN here.