Durban loses more than half its treated water before it reaches a tap

South Africa's water crisis is not primarily about scarce rainfall — it is about what happens to treated water after it leaves the plant. Nationally, 47.3% of all purified water never reaches a paying consumer, lost instead to ageing pipes, illegal connections and billing failures; in eThekwini, the share exceeds half. But the infrastructure decay is accelerating: 47% of the country's 848 municipal wastewater treatment systems are now rated critical — up from 39% just three years ago — meaning the crisis compounds itself as untreated effluent re-enters the same rivers that feed drinking-water catchments.