“Water is the driving force of all nature.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

South Africa’s water challenge is not a shortage of rainfall, it is a shortage of functioning systems. 

The Department of Water and Sanitation’s 2025 Green, Blue and No Drop reports paint a sobering picture: nearly half of the country’s municipal wastewater treatment systems are now rated critical, and non-revenue water sits stubbornly above 47%, against an international benchmark closer to 30%.

For councils under pressure from residents, regulators and auditors alike, the practical question is this: what strategies can municipalities implement to improve water supply and treatment services without waiting for a national rescue? 

The answer is rarely a single capital project. It is a sequence of governance, planning and operational changes that compound over time.

Start with integrated water management, not isolated repairs

Most municipal water failures are treated as separate incidents: a burst main here, a failing clarifier there. Integrated water management reframes the network as one system, where abstraction, treatment, distribution, billing, wastewater and catchment health all influence one another.

In practice, this means a single data picture across bulk supply, reservoir levels, district metered areas and effluent quality, rather than four departments working from four spreadsheets. It also means recognising that reducing demand is usually cheaper than augmenting supply. 

The Water Research Commission has consistently shown that conservation and demand management deliver water at a fraction of the cost of new bulk infrastructure.

Fix water governance before fixing pipes

Weak water governance is the multiplier behind almost every technical failure. Where water revenue is not ring-fenced, maintenance budgets get raided. Where accountability is diffuse, corrective action plans are written but never implemented.

Three governance moves make a measurable difference:

  • Ring-fence water and sanitation revenue so tariff income funds the service that generated it.
  • Establish single-point accountability for water services provision, with clear reporting to council.
  • Close the skills gap by appointing appropriately classified process controllers and retaining technical staff.

National Treasury’s performance-based incentive grant for metros now makes several of these conditions non-negotiable, tying funding to turnaround plans, non-revenue water reduction and stronger regulatory functions. 

Support from SALGA and the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent is available to smaller water services authorities that lack in-house capacity.

Make non-revenue water the first line item in any municipal water strategy

If a municipality can only afford one intervention, this is it. Roughly a third of system input volume is lost physically through leaks, with the balance lost to metering inaccuracy, unbilled consumption and theft.

A credible municipal water strategy should include pressure management in zones with high burst frequency, active leak detection rather than reactive repair, meter replacement programmes on a defined cycle, and the establishment of district metered areas so losses can be located rather than estimated.

These interventions typically pay for themselves within one to three years, the fastest route to freeing up both water and revenue.

Modernise treatment, then protect it with maintenance

Improving treatment performance rarely starts with a new plant. It starts with a process audit: comparing actual hydraulic and organic loading against design capacity, checking dosing control, and verifying that monitoring data is real rather than retrospective.

From there, telemetry and SCADA, standby power, sludge handling capacity and planned preventative maintenance schedules do more for compliance than any single upgrade. Where refurbishment is genuinely required, phased capital planning tied to condition assessments prevents the familiar cycle of build, neglect, rebuild.

Do you need assistance with Integrated Water Resource Management?

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Build a strategy that outlasts the election cycle

Sustainable improvement depends on plans that survive changes in administration, asset registers, condition data, ten-year capital programmes and realistic tariff modelling. Our guide to strategic water planning unpacks how to turn a patchwork of fixes into a defensible roadmap aligned with the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan.

So, what strategies can municipalities implement to improve water supply and treatment services?

In short: adopt integrated water management, strengthen water governance and revenue protection, attack non-revenue water first, audit and maintain treatment assets, and anchor it all in a long-term municipal water strategy backed by reliable data.

Re-Solve partners with municipalities across South Africa to design and implement exactly these water supply and treatment strategies, from water balance studies and pressure management to full demand management programmes.

Speak to our municipal water team about a practical, funded improvement plan for your network.