Despite the magnitude of the City of Johannesburg’s (CoJ’s) existing sewer and water network, infrastructure will need to double over the next ten years to meet the surge in demand, delegates heard at the Symposium on the Future of Water-Efficient Sanitation on Thursday.

The two-day symposium is being hosted by the CoJ, together with the Department of Water and Sanitation, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the South Africa Local Government Association, the Water Partnerships Office, the Water Research Commission and Planact.

Amid the expected population surge in the next ten years from 5.8-million to seven-million and subsequent rising demand, the city requires R3-billion a year to invest in bulk infrastructure and maintenance, yet the city can only afford R1-billion, said CoJ Mayor Councillor Dada Morero.

Highlighting the magnitude of the challenge, he said that the CoJ currently had a sewer network spanning more than 12 000 km, six wastewater treatment plants and 38 pumpstations.

The city has been buckling under the pressure to maintain or replace the existing, aging infrastructure.

“We do not have the resources. We are unable to provide proper reticulation,” he warned, pointing out that the aging infrastructure, in some cases, required full replacement.

Despite the urgent need to invest in bulk infrastructure and invest in infrastructure maintenance, the city is unable to make timeous interventions with own resources and money.

“One of the only ways we can intervene is to go and raise money in the capital market,” Morero said, commenting, however, that he believed that the CoJ was making inroads to ring-fencing revenue and raising capital.

RING-FENCING REVENUE

The city has started partially ring-fencing Joburg Water’s revenue with a 70:30 split. The city retains 30% to support the nonrevenue departments in the city.

The ring-fencing of revenue is part of the conditions of an imminent R12-billion to R13-billion deal with the DBSA to raise the capital to invest into Johannesburg’s infrastructure needs.

The signing of the deal, which will conclude in due course, also means that the city has a responsibility to ensure that it protects its revenue, and proves that it is able to maintain revenue collections at levels that will ensure the city can service the debt and maintain the infrastructure moving forward.

“There is no point in deploying R13-billion, but you are not deploying sufficient resources to maintain that infrastructure,” he continued.

“We did very well in 2025/26, when, for the first time, we were able to push the maintenance budget of the city from 4% to about 7%, which was a significant jump.”

The CoJ is aiming to raise this to 8% in the current financial year, with an ambition to raise it further next year to about 9%, surpassing the national average and the requirements by National Treasury on infrastructure maintenance.

While investment is critical, there is also a need for innovation and better technology.

“We do not just need money, we need innovative technologies because we do not have the money to do a full-scale reticulation,” Morero pointed out.

Working together with management and finance teams, he believes that the CoJ is making the necessary inroads to change the narrative in Johannesburg.

“It can't be that Johannesburg continues to experience more than 10 000 [water pipe] bursts on a monthly basis. It cannot. We therefore have to invest, put in the right money, and chase the technology.”