The Department of Water and Sanitation’s (DWS’s) latest Green Drop report and the Blue and No Drop progress assessment reports paint a grim picture of the deteriorating state of South Africa’s water systems.

While drinking water systems and nonrevenue water have remained relatively stable – albeit at a high-risk level – the country’s wastewater systems continue to deteriorate.

The full Green Drop Report 2025, based on audits of 848 municipal wastewater treatment systems across 144 water service authorities during the 2023/24 financial year, shows that 47%, or 396 systems, are in a critical state.

This marks a decline from the 39%, or 334 of 850 wastewater treatment systems, reported to be in a critical state during the 2021/22 financial year.

The number of wastewater systems performing at the ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ levels has also declined, from 14% (118 systems) in 2021/22 to 8%, (66 systems) during the latest audit period, from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024.

Only 14 systems achieved Green Drop certification – indicating compliance with wastewater standards above 90% – down from 22 in 2022. Of these, five were in the Western Cape, one in Mpumalanga and eight in Gauteng.

No wastewater system in the North West, the Northern Cape, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State and the Eastern Cape achieved compliance above 90%.

“These results show that systems previously operating at a poor level have continued to deteriorate into critical failure, placing increasing pressure on water resources, the environment and public health,” says Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina.

Meanwhile, the Blue Drop and No Drop progress assessment reports for the 2023/24 municipal financial year were released as complementary reports to the full Green Drop report.

The Blue Drop assessment report, which assesses the quality of drinking water, shows that performance has stabilised, albeit at a high-risk level.

“The risk results of the 2025 Blue Drop progress assessment report are not significantly different to the risk results of the 2023 full Blue Drop report,” says DWS director-general Dr Sean Phillips, noting that drinking water systems in the major metropolitan areas are generally performing well in key performance areas.

The 2025 Blue Drop assessment found that, nationally, low-risk drinking water systems have increased marginally from 60.2% to 61.9%, while critical-risk systems have decreased from 9.9% to 7.9%.

Despite these modest improvements, a significant number of systems remain in the high- and critical-risk categories, requiring urgent corrective action and intensified regulatory oversight.

In addition, the national average for nonrevenue water has declined marginally to 47.3%, compared with 47.4% in the 2023 full No Drop Report, indicating stabilisation.

However, the figure remains persistently high, reflecting ongoing inefficiencies in water use, infrastructure losses and weak revenue collection. These challenges continue to undermine the financial sustainability of municipalities and their ability to maintain and operate infrastructure effectively.

According to Phillips, the underlying causes of poor performance identified in the Drop reports include non-adherence to standard operating procedures for drinking water treatment and wastewater treatment; a lack of maintenance; and municipalities’ failure to hire qualified staff or prioritise budgets for maintenance and operations.

Weak billing and revenue collection, poor municipal leadership and management and the absence of a legal requirement for municipalities to ringfence water and sanitation revenue for maintenance further exacerbate the challenge.

Organised criminality and malfeasance, including attacks on critical water and energy infrastructure, corruption and illegal connections, continue to hamper the recovery of the water sector.

The DWS is responding to these findings with a strengthened programme of enforcement, investment and reform aimed at reversing the decline and restoring system performance.

A central focus is the urgent implementation of corrective action plans for all systems in a critical state.