Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu led the National Water and Sanitation Summit in Midrand, Gauteng thsi past weekend.

The summit aimed to find lasting solutions to challenges facing the sector and to ensure water security and dignified sanitation in South Africa.

Various stakeholders, including ministers and experts, were attending the summit.

Mchunu said that in their interaction with water authorities, what they had learned was clear. He said municipalities across the country complained about aging or dysfunctional infrastructure.

“Each and every mayor would complain that we have the aging infrastructure in our municipality, that we have dysfunctional infrastructure in our municipality, that there are poor operations and management, and that we lose a lot of water.”

This, he said, resulted in massive water losses.

“These losses amount to an average of 40%. I think the highest municipality that indicated a loss of water was 60% and I think the lowest reported was something like 26%. There are very few municipalities that reported losing water at less than 30% throughout the country. I don’t think over five municipalities.”