All eight metros
Is my water reliable? How much is lost? Is it safe?
6 of 7
metros lost more water than Treasury’s upper norm of 30% in 2024-25. Not counted: Cape Town (not yet published).
Official: Audited annual financial statements · Data as of 2024-25 financial year (audited statements) · Next update expected Jan 2027 (2025-26 annual reports) · Last updated
An asterisk marks a figure our automated checks found inconsistent with another official figure. It is shown as reported, explained in a footnote and left out of rankings.
Official: Stats SA, General Household Survey 2025 · Data as of General Household Survey 2025
| Metro | Cut 2+ days | All households |
|---|---|---|
| Johannesburg | 829 000 | 2 377 079 |
| Tshwane | 385 000 | 1 476 159 |
| Ekurhuleni | 316 000 | 1 535 395 |
| Cape Town | 95 000 | 1 469 484 |
| eThekwini | 512 000 | 1 373 130 |
| Nelson Mandela Bay | 106 000 | 395 545 |
| Buffalo City | 79 000 | 263 502 |
| Mangaung | 63 000 | 302 435 |
Stats SA: “a smaller percentage of households in metropolitan areas reported water interruptions (30,0% compared with 37,6%). Water interruptions were most common in eThekwini (43,9%), which is almost six time more common than in the City of Cape Town (7,8%).”
Cut 2+ days: households that answered yes to a water cut of 48 hours or more at a time, in thousands as Stats SA prints them (Table 2.8: Water and sanitation variables by metro); all households from Table 3.7. A sample survey. Sources: GHS 2025: selected development indicators, metros (P0318.3); the quotation is from the main GHS 2025 release (P0318), section 9.3. For cuts happening now, see the city’s notices and community reports.
Official: audited annual financial statements · Data as of 2024-25 financial year (audited statements) · Next update expected Jan 2027 (2025-26 annual reports) · Last updated
Water a metro buys or purifies but never bills: leaks, burst pipes, illegal connections and faulty meters. Treasury’s norm is 15% to 30%.
58.7%
Only Ekurhuleni stayed within Treasury’s norm of 15% to 30%. Ranked highest loss first. A lower figure is better.
Treasury norm (Circular 71): 15% to 30%. The thin lines on the bars mark it.
Source: each metro’s audited annual financial statements. Each figure links to the page it comes from. Some metros report non-revenue water, which is close to but not the same as distribution losses; the note says so.
Official: Rand Water, weekly meter readings · week of 21 Sep 2026 · Data as of week of 21 Sep 2026 · Updates: weekly · Last updated
3 641 Ml a day
The three metros’ average use of Rand Water’s water in the week of 21 Sep 2026: 20% above the 3 045 Ml a day Rand Water sets for them under its permanent licence, and 1% more than a year earlier (3 620 Ml a day).
Average megalitres a day each week, read from Rand Water’s bulk meters. This is water the metro buys, not water residents use: some is lost in the metro’s own pipes (see “Water lost before it reaches a meter”). Rand Water states its licences as 1 600 million m³ a year (permanent) and 1 803 million m³ a year (temporary), and shows each metro’s level in Ml a day. Source: Rand Water, weekly meter readings, 21 Sep 2026 (all weeks).
Official: DWS weekly State of Reservoirs, copied 10 Oct 2026 · Data as of see the copy date · Updates: DWS publishes weekly; we copy by hand
| Metro | Main water supply system | Full | A year ago |
|---|---|---|---|
| Johannesburg | Integrated Vaal River System | 97% | 98% |
| Tshwane | Integrated Vaal River System | 97% | 98% |
| Ekurhuleni | Integrated Vaal River System | 97% | 98% |
| Cape Town | Cape Town (Western Cape Water Supply System) | 75% | 91% |
| eThekwini | Umgeni | 90% | 93% |
| Nelson Mandela Bay | Algoa | 101% | 62% |
| Buffalo City | Amathole | 103% | 97% |
| Mangaung | Bloemfontein | 100% | 81% |
DWS: these summaries cover only the dams in its State of Reservoirs report. Several metros share a system: Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni all draw mainly on the Integrated Vaal River System. Each metro’s main system is confirmed from its own documents. Cape Town and Nelson Mandela Bay publish their own dam levels; their Water pages show them first. The DWS site refuses automated requests, so these figures are copied by hand from its summary pages each week (copied 10 Oct 2026; the report’s own date was not copied). Source: DWS, weekly summary by water supply system.
Official: City of Cape Town · Data as of week of 5 Oct 2026 · Updates: weekly · Last updated
75.3%
full on 5 Oct 2026, against 91.2% at the same time last year. The six major dams of the Western Cape Water Supply System changed -0.8% in a week. The City’s water status: Drought Response.
Water used: 891 million litres a day, about 152 litres per person a day (the City’s estimate for Cape Town).
The system also supplies neighbouring municipalities and farms. Source: City of Cape Town, Weekly Water Dashboard (pages 1 and 2) · This week’s dam levels. We keep each week’s report; the history starts on 5 Oct 2026.
eThekwini water, 2026
20 city notices so far this year named a place in Umlazi: shutdowns, rationing, restrictions and supply cuts. Tap a month to see them.
January 2026 · 1 notice
February 2026 · 2 notices
March 2026 · 5 notices
April 2026 · 2 notices
May 2026 · 1 notice
June 2026 · 2 notices
July 2026 · 3 notices
August 2026 · 2 notices
September 2026 · 1 notice
October 2026 · 1 notice
Source: eThekwini press statements on durban.gov.za, matched to Umlazi by the places they name (Stats SA Census 2011 names; Malukazi counts as Umlazi X, the city’s own usage). Dashed months are still to come. Notices posted only on social media are not included. Read the story
55%
of the water eThekwini treats is never billed: lost to leaks, bursts and theft, or simply not charged for. Each hollow square is one litre in every hundred.
Annual average (Jul 2026). Source: The Post, 22 Jul 2026, citing city figures.
Official: each metro’s published notices · Data as of see each notice’s date · Updates: checked daily · Last updated
Planned and unplanned water interruptions each metro announced since 1 Jan 2025, matched to wards by the places they name. Metros publish very differently, so the counts say more about how each metro publishes than about how often the water is off.
| Metro | Notices | Matched to wards | Latest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Johannesburg | Johannesburg Water publishes its water notices mostly on social media, not on a page we can read. | ||
| Tshwane | 35 | 34 | 17 Sep 2026 |
| Ekurhuleni | 8 | 3 | 3 Dec 2025 |
| Cape Town | 61 | 61 | 9 Oct 2026 |
| eThekwini | See eThekwini’s own water notices (matched to wards separately). | ||
| Nelson Mandela Bay | 39 | 31 | 3 Sep 2026 |
| Buffalo City | Buffalo City publishes no water outage notices online that we could find. | ||
| Mangaung | Mangaung publishes no water outage notices online that we could find. | ||
Places are matched by their Stats SA Census 2011 names, longest name first, with no guessing; a name we cannot match is listed for checking and not linked to a ward. Notices before 1 Jan 2025 are not included. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Water publishes its water notices mostly on social media, not on a page we can read. Buffalo City: Buffalo City publishes no water outage notices online that we could find. Mangaung: Mangaung publishes no water outage notices online that we could find. eThekwini: See eThekwini’s own water notices (matched to wards separately). Where a metro publishes no notices, residents can report an outage (community reports, unverified).
Official: eThekwini press statements · Data as of see each notice’s date · Updates: checked daily
Every water shutdown, rationing and supply notice eThekwini published since January 2025, matched to the wards it names. See eThekwini’s wards.
