Water crisis in popular millionaire’s town in South Africa

Day Zero is looming for the popular tourist town of Knysna, as the Akkerkloof dam has only 10 days left of water for the municipality, a preventable crisis which experts say was caused by neglect.

Recent rainfall has been insufficient to save residents of the Garden Route town from an impending total drought. 

The municipality announced on Facebook that water at public facilities is shut off, as the dam is sitting at around 15% capacity.  

“As a water-saving measure, showers and external taps at ablution facilities and in public spaces remain closed,” the municipality said on 19 January. 

The Department of Water and Sanitation Director General Sean Phillips, however, said in an interview with Newzroom Afrika that the current crisis was caused by neglect by the local government. 

The Knysna local government admitted, according to Phillips, that maintenance and investment in the water system have been neglected for decades.

He said that in 2010, when the municipality was experiencing a drought, the National Government stepped in to provide funding to drill boreholes and build a seawater desalination plant.

“After that drought went away and the municipality had plenty of surface water, they neglected those boreholes, and they neglected the desalination plant so that neither is functional now,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the municipality has neglected investment in the maintenance and development of its infrastructure for decades.”

The Director-General said that getting these facilities back up and running will not be easy. The National government has stepped in to determine what is required to rehabilitate the desalination plant.

The plant has been vandalised while it was left neglected. It will take time and resources to get the plant working again.

Phillips said that, as the Knysna population has grown, it has not increased the capacity of its pumping stations to pump water from the extraction points in the Knysna River.

He added that the municipality has a high level of water losses due to leaks. The Director General estimates that about half of the municipal water is lost to leaks. 

“We can’t tell exactly how much is being leaked because they’ve also neglected getting all their water meters working correctly. Most of them don’t work,” he said. 

Delaying the inevitable

Prior to the National Government stepping in to assist the municipality and examine the situation, Newsday reported on similar claims from the Provincial Government. 

The Western Cape Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Anton Bredell, told Newsday that the municipality should have been prepared for the drought. 

“The Greater Knysna Town water supply system has been designed to allow the municipality to store water in the off-channel Akkerkloof Dam throughout the year by pumping water from the Knysna River,” said Bredell’s spokesperson, Wouter Kriel.

The Charlsford Pump Station should have pumped water into the dam throughout 2025, creating a buffer for the annually anticipated dry season. 

“During the current season, the catchment of the Knysna River received below average rainfall, resulting in below average river levels,” Kriel explained. 

“There has, however, been sufficient river flow during the course of the year to fill Akkerkloof dam as per the design of the system.”

However, due to technical challenges at the abstraction point in the Knysna River, the municipality did not fill the dam and therefore left the town vulnerable to drought.

Phillips said that, looking forward, the National Government, working together with local authorities and provincial government, is trying to extend the last ten days of water in the town as long as possible. 

This includes stricter enforcement of water restrictions as well as emergency funding to fix leaks in the distribution system.

If the municipality does hit day zero, which some argue is now inevitable, authorities are working on plans to get water tankers to bring water from other municipalities in the area.

“If the drought is going to continue, you can only delay the inevitable. We don’t have control over the weather. We can’t make it rain,” he said. 

This follows a failed attempt by the Western Cape provincial government to place the ANC/EFF/PA-led local government under provincial administration.

In late 2025, the NCOP blocked the provincial government’s request, citing a “turnaround plan that is being implemented.”

The ANC called the DA-led provincial government’s move “politically motivated,” and “not in the best interest of Knysna residents.”