He was delivering an oral presentation at the National Investigative Hearing on Friday in Johannesburg. The hearing is examining SA’s food systems and the role of water security in sustaining them.
Mahlobo said that while access levels have increased significantly, reliability has deteriorated posing a major threat to households, businesses and food production.
He explained: “Access to water in our country has moved to 90% plus. Access to sanitation has moved to 87%. These are official statistics.
The problem in our country is reliability, which is a different factor. In our own reports, produced by the Auditor‑General, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, National Treasury and experts, our reliability has gone down to 67%. In other areas, it’s less than that. Non‑revenue water is at 47%. And then the issues of overflow and discharge are a problem.”
Mahlobo emphasised that reliability challenges, combined with high levels of water losses and failing wastewater systems, are placing additional strain on SA’s water infrastructure and compromising long‑term sustainability.
–SABC/ChannelAfrica–
