BACKGROUND

National Water Month is South Africa’s expansion of the World Water Day which is observed annually on 22 March and focuses its attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

World Water Day is spearheaded by the United Nations (UN), using the day as a basis for longer-term action involving governments across the globe. The UN aims to ensure that everyone in the world has access to safe water by 2030, while not impacting negatively on the environment.

Each year, the United Nations Water sets a theme for World Water Day which corresponds to a current or future challenge. In 2025, the World Water Day campaign is led by the UN-Water Expert group on climate and water. The theme for 2026 is "Water and gender", with the slogan “Where Water Flows, Equality Grows.”

To date, there are off-track measures in place to meet the Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation by 2030 and World Water Day is an opportunity to contribute to speeding up progress.

South Africa is a water-scarce country, receiving around half of the global average annual rainfall, with this rainfall distributed unevenly across the country, and across seasons and years. This water scarcity is exacerbated by an escalating demand due to economic and population growth, urbanisation and rising standards of living, unsustainable use and high levels of wastage and loss, as well as increasing pollution which renders water unfit for use.

In addition, the degradation of wetlands, changes in rainfall patterns due to climate change and increasing temperatures also driven by climate change, are contributing to the reduction of the security of water supply.

RATIONALE

South Africa will celebrate National Water Month from 1 – 31 March 2026. The programme is designed to have an opening and closing events as well as weekly events sub-themed from the main theme, all working towards the main theme and messaged according to our determined key messages. In the forefront as key messengers are Minister, Deputy Ministers, Director-General and the Departmental and Ministerial Spokespersons.

This month-long awareness campaign helps the Department to deliver its mandate on challenges that the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan (Master Plan) notes of insufficient water, infrastructure maintenance and investment, recurrent droughts driven by climatic variation, inequities in access to water and sanitation, as well as deteriorating water quality.

National Water Month will serve as a strategic platform to deepen public awareness of the priorities outlined in the Department’s Master Plan. It provides an important opportunity to mobilise communities, institutions and partners across the country around a shared water agenda. Through this national focus, we reaffirm our commitment to advancing the Constitutional rights of all people to access sufficient water and a healthy environment, while accelerating progress towards Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which calls for universal access to safe water and sanitation.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the National Water Month are to strive to find solutions and innovations to water security, conservation, pollution, climate change, as well as floods and droughts. This is done through a collaborative effort and active engagement of government departments, private companies, academia, community members and stakeholders in the sector.

THE ENVISAGED OUTCOMES FOR NATIONAL WATER MONTH ARE AS FOLLOWS:

• Dialogue on the best practices in leveraging Groundwater resources
• Awareness of how an enabling environment will be created for effective water and sanitation management, including sharing information on the five (5) pillar strategy of the Department of Water and Sanitation;
• Increased awareness on the use, management, conservation, development and protection of water resources.
• Dialogue within the sector on how the different players can work together to create solutions.