NATIONAL WATER AMENDMENT BILL TABLED

NATIONAL WATER AMENDMENT BILL TABLED

• 21 January 2026
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: On 22 January 2026, the Parliamentary Monitoring Group published the Bill on their website although, at the time of writing, Parliament itself had yet to do so.

Parliamentary papers have confirmed that a National Water Amendment Bill approved by Cabinet in July/August 2025 has finally been tabled in the National Assembly.

At the time of writing, the Bill had yet to be published. However, according to a media statement on the two Cabinet meetings at which the Bill was considered, once passed by Parliament, enacted and operationalised the proposed new piece of legislation is expected to:

• ‘ensure that the country’s water resources are well managed, protected and conserved’, and
• ‘eliminate the imbalances of the past relating to water allocation’.

The Bill’s procedurally required pre-tabling explanatory summary was gazetted in October 2025 – when a Water Services Amendment Bill considered and approved during the same two Cabinet meetings was tabled. Although the National Assembly’s Water & Sanitation Committee was briefed on that Bill the following month, there have been no further developments.

As SA Legal Academy has already reported, the Water Services Amendment Bill seeks to:

• strengthen the regulation and management of water services
• improve compliance with the 1997 Water Services Act
• introduce reforms intended to clarify the functions of water services authorities and water services providers
• address the ‘poor performance of water service providers’, and
• introduce:
  • norms and standards to guide interventions intended to improve service delivery
  • minimum standards to be met by water services providers, and
  • offences for non-compliance.

Apparently, municipalities tend to blur the functions of water services authorities and providers – possibly contributing to poor service delivery. The Bill seeks to address this by making water services authorities responsible for enforcing the minimum standards to be met by water services providers. This is according to the Cabinet media statement on the two meetings at which the Bill was approved for tabling.

• National Water Amendment Bill’s explanatory summary
• Cabinet media statement
• parliamentary papers
• Water Services Amendment Bill (tabled in October 2025)

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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