South Africa’s escalating water outages are being driven primarily by failing infrastructure rather than water scarcity, and the country is facing a critical turning point requiring urgent engineering intervention to prevent further service delivery collapse. Recent national assessments showed that about 47% of treated water was lost before reaching consumers – significantly higher than the global average of about 30% – largely owing to leaks, ageing pipelines, illegal connections and inadequate maintenance, said South African engineering firm AvenirHoldings CEO Tshidi Mndzebele.
