URGENT REQUEST FOR PROVISION OF WATER TANKS, RELIABLE WATER SUPPLY, AND SANITATION PACKS TO COMMUNITIES WITHOUT ACCESS TO WATER

A formal letter from the South African Water Caucus (SAWC) and affiliates to Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, President Cyril Ramaphosa, and other officials, demanding urgent provision of water tanks, reliable water supply, and sanitation packs for communities lacking access. The document highlights a failure by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) to respond to previous requests and warns of legal action if a response is not provided by August 3, 2020.

• The South African Water Caucus (SAWC) reports that over 200 communities have been identified as lacking access to water, based on data from the SAWC, the C19 Women’s Solidarity Forum, and the South African Food Sovereignty Campaign.
• The SAWC expresses concern that the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has failed to respond to multiple urgent requests for intervention sent on April 22, April 30, and June 1, 2020.
• The SAWC identifies several failures regarding the DWS hotline, including its inaccessibility to rural communities without telephones or network coverage, and the tendency of the hotline to refer callers back to ineffective municipal and provincial departments.
• The document details severe water and sanitation crises across multiple provinces, including the Western Cape, where residents in Mfuleni use only two taps for 200 people and others relieve themselves in wetlands due to a lack of toilets.
• In Limpopo, communities face extreme water scarcity; in Lephalale, water tanks have been dry for five years, and in Mabuela Village, women face police harassment while collecting water from streams during lockdown.
• The Eastern Cape reports widespread infrastructure failure, with some communities in the Mbizana Local Municipality relying on 'muddy puddles' and others in the Centane region seeing community leaders arrested for contravening COVID-19 regulations while seeking water.
• The SAWC notes that while the Water Command Centre was intended to centralize water distribution and allocate financial resources, it has not effectively responded to urgent community requests.

APA

Centre for Environmental Rights (2020). URGENT REQUEST FOR PROVISION OF WATER TANKS, RELIABLE WATER SUPPLY, AND SANITATION PACKS TO COMMUNITIES WITHOUT ACCESS TO WATER. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SAWC-letter-to-Minister-Sisulu-and-Others-28-July-2020.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Centre for Environmental Rights. URGENT REQUEST FOR PROVISION OF WATER TANKS, RELIABLE WATER SUPPLY, AND SANITATION PACKS TO COMMUNITIES WITHOUT ACCESS TO WATER. 2020. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SAWC-letter-to-Minister-Sisulu-and-Others-28-July-2020.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Centre for Environmental Rights |title=URGENT REQUEST FOR PROVISION OF WATER TANKS, RELIABLE WATER SUPPLY, AND SANITATION PACKS TO COMMUNITIES WITHOUT ACCESS TO WATER |date=28 July 2020 |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SAWC-letter-to-Minister-Sisulu-and-Others-28-July-2020.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{centreforenvironmentalrights2020urgent, author = {{Centre for Environmental Rights}}, title = {{URGENT REQUEST FOR PROVISION OF WATER TANKS, RELIABLE WATER SUPPLY, AND SANITATION PACKS TO COMMUNITIES WITHOUT ACCESS TO WATER}}, publisher = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, year = {2020}, month = jul, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SAWC-letter-to-Minister-Sisulu-and-Others-28-July-2020.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }