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Water Rights Tracker exposes serious threats to the right to water

- Lee-Anne Gaertner

The Claude Leon Chair in Earth Justice and Stewardship and the South African Human Rights Commission have launched the Water Rights Tracker

A new research project profiling all 144 Water Services Authorities across South Africa reveals widespread failures in water service delivery and provides a powerful new tool to hold government accountable for realising the constitutional right to water. The launch of the Water Rights Tracker comes at a time when over 400 people have reportedly suffered gastrointestinal disease after drinking non-chlorinated water in the Bronkhorstspruit area.

The Claude Leon Chair in Earth Justice and Stewardship at the University of the Witwatersrand and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) have today launched the Water Rights Tracker, a five-year research project assessing progress towards realising the right to water across South Africa's nine provinces.

Despite three decades of constitutional democracy, significant policy reforms and considerable investment in water infrastructure, millions of people in our country still struggle to access sufficient, safe and affordable water. Communities face prolonged interruptions to supply, deteriorating infrastructure, unsafe drinking water and inadequate support for households unable to afford basic services.

The Water Rights Tracker brings together extensive publicly available data to provide a comprehensive picture of water services in each of South Africa’s 144 Water Services Authorities. By examining access, affordability, adequacy, quality and efficiency, alongside the financial, technical and institutional resources available to municipalities, the project identifies areas where the progressive realisation of the right to water is at risk.

Importantly, the research goes beyond conventional service delivery measurements to assess water provision through a human rights lens. The Tracker identifies a series of “red flags” which can assist communities, civil society organisations, government officials and oversight institutions in identifying potential human rights violations and demanding corrective action.

Turning information into accountability

Section 27 of South Africa’s Constitution guarantees everyone the right of access to sufficient water and requires the state to take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of this right. The Water Rights Tracker provides a new framework for assessing whether the state is meeting this obligation.

Drawing on 85 indicators across five categories, the research considers not only whether households can access water, but also what municipalities and other state institutions are doing to progressively improve water services. It highlights the importance of effective policies, adequate financial and human resources, infrastructure maintenance, transparent oversight and meaningful responses to regulatory failures.

The researchers also emphasise the need for better publicly accessible data, particularly on the frequency and duration of water interruptions, to enable more meaningful monitoring of whether communities receive adequate and reliable services. The Tracker is intended to support the SAHRC in carrying out its constitutional mandate of monitoring the realisation of the right of access to sufficient water, while equipping communities, researchers, civil society and decision-makers with evidence to demand improvements.

As South Africa approaches its 2026 local government elections, the findings provide an important opportunity to place water services and constitutional accountability at the centre of public debate.

“Access to sufficient water is not a privilege or a political promise,” says Prof Tracy-Lynn Field, Chair in Earth Justice and Stewardship. “It is a constitutional right. The Water Rights Tracker offers a means of measuring whether that right is being realised, identifying where failures are occurring and ensuring that those responsible for delivering water services can be held to account.”

“The recent incident in Bronkhorstspruit where residents have been afflicted by gastrointestinal illness due to exposure to contaminated water from the Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Works underscores the fact that failure to deliver quality water, is not just another administrative mishap, it has real-life consequences,” says Dr Henk Boshoff, Commissioner at the SAHRC. “The water crisis is impacting lives and livelihoods. We cannot afford to bury our heads in the sand, but we must tackle the water crisis head-on.”

Access the Water Rights Tracker here.

Find the presentations from the launch:

For media enquiries, please contact:

From the Wits School of Law:

From the South African Human Rights Commission:

  • Mr Wisani Baloyi (Communications Co-ordinator for South African Human Rights Commission) at wbaloyi@sahrc.org.za 
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