QwaQwa’s water crisis can no longer be ignored, says WaterCAN Free State

Years of dry taps, unreliable water supply, sewage spills and concerns about drinking-water quality have left communities in QwaQwa living through a water crisis that can no longer be treated as normal, says WaterCAN Free State.

The latest Blue Drop and Green Drop reports released by the Department of Water and Sanitation show that Free State municipalities are among the poorest performers in the country when it comes to drinking-water quality and wastewater treatment.

The situation in QwaQwa, within the Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality, is a stark example of that wider crisis.

Communities have been raising the alarm for years, while infrastructure failures, poor governance and unreliable service delivery continue to leave households without dependable access to safe water.

WaterCAN Free State representative Dipuo Hlalele said residents had been expected to live with these failures for far too long.

“People in QwaQwa have had to adapt their lives around water failures that should never have become normal. A dry tap is not simply an inconvenience. It affects whether families can cook, wash, go to school, run a small business or live with dignity,” Hlalele said.

WaterCAN Free State has previously raised concerns about prolonged water interruptions and sewage spills in the municipality.

In February this year, the crisis took another disturbing turn when live bloodworms were confirmed in water coming from household taps in Marakong Village, resulting in the affected water supply being shut down.

“These incidents should trigger urgent intervention and accountability. Instead, communities are repeatedly expected to cope with another outage, another sewage spill or another problem with water quality and then simply move on. That cannot continue,” Hlalele said.

WaterCAN Free State believes QwaQwa reflects a wider problem in South Africa’s water sector: communities are increasingly expected to adapt to chronic failure while those responsible for providing basic services face too little accountability.

Residents should not have to plan their lives around whether water will come out of the tap. They should not have to depend indefinitely on emergency water supplies, live alongside sewage spills or question whether the water reaching their homes is safe to drink.

Access to sufficient water is a constitutional right. It is not a favour from a municipality.

It is against this backdrop that WaterCAN Free State is organising an on-the-ground visit to QwaQwa to connect with local water activists, community organisations and community leaders who have been living with and documenting the crisis.

“We are not going to QwaQwa to tell communities what their problems are. They already know. We are going to listen, connect with the people doing the work on the ground and help make sure that what they are experiencing is seen and heard beyond their own communities,” Hlalele said.

WaterCAN Free State will also conduct citizen science water testing and gather community observations to help document conditions and strengthen the evidence around water quality and service delivery failures.

“Citizen science gives communities another tool to hold those in power accountable. When residents can test, record and document what is happening, it becomes much harder for serious problems to be dismissed as anecdotal complaints,” Dipuo said.

Communities and activists are often the first to identify failures - whether it is a dry tap, sewage entering a river or a change in the colour or smell of drinking water. Their experiences and evidence must form part of how authorities are held accountable.

WaterCAN Free State will engage the relevant authorities on the concerns and findings raised during the visit and will continue supporting communities to demand clear answers, measurable timelines and accountability.

“QwaQwa cannot disappear from the national conversation simply because people have been living with this crisis for years. Chronic failure does not make the situation less urgent. It makes accountability even more important,” Hlalele said.