The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and the Dutch Water Authorities have agreed to take their Blue Deal partnership into a third phase, from 2027 to 2030. The new phase will focus on strengthening the country’s catchment management agencies (CMAs).
Water and Sanitation director-general Sean Phillips and Dutch Water Authorities president Jeroen Haan signed a declaration of intent in Cape Town on Thursday. The declaration builds on the second phase and lays the basis for a multi-year plan for 2027 to 2030. The programme’s steering committee endorsed the strategic direction for the new phase on 7 October.
Phillips said the programme supports national priorities, including the National Water Action Plan that President Cyril Ramaphosa released in July. He said the third phase would build on earlier progress, strengthen institutional capacity and encourage local ownership. The local partnerships set up in the first two phases would be its foundation.
| Phase | Period | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Phase I | 2019–2022 | Local catchment projects, community monitoring, skills exchange |
| Phase II | 2023–2026 | Biodiversity protection, citizen science, women’s leadership |
| Phase III | 2027–2030 | CMA governance, catchment strategies, data systems, stakeholder participation |
The third phase has four focus areas:
- the financial and organisational viability of CMAs, including governance and institutional arrangements
- catchment management strategies to guide planning
- data, monitoring and digital systems to support evidence-based decisions
- participation by municipalities, water users and communities
The CMAs will take over and guide local initiatives started in earlier phases.
South Africa has six CMAs. They manage water resources at catchment level and are expected to become financially self-sustaining. Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina told parliament this year that two of them, the Breede-Olifants and Inkomati-Usuthu agencies, have received clean audits every year since they were set up.
Projects in the first two phases covered the Crocodile River, the Vredefort Dome and Parys, the Blesbokspruit, the Msunduzi River and Theewaterskloof. Second-phase work included:
- river clean-ups, citizen science and youth projects
- biodiversity protection on the Klipdrift and Palmiet rivers and the Industrial Road Stream in Grabouw
- an educational exhibition at the Vredefort Dome
The partners also set up Sisterhood in Water with the World Water Academy. It is a platform for women in the sector, with a digital mentorship network. Sites at Theewaterskloof, Vredefort Dome, Blesbokspruit and the Msunduzi-uMngeni catchment will serve as working examples in the new phase.
The 21 Dutch regional water authorities launched the Blue Deal in 2018 with the Netherlands’ foreign affairs and infrastructure ministries. It now runs 17 partnerships in 15 countries, with the aim of improving access to clean, safe and sufficient water for 20 million people by 2030. The Dutch partners doubled their joint funding to €10m (about R200m) a year for 2023 to 2030. The report did not say how much of that goes to South Africa.
The agreement comes as South Africa struggles with water losses. The department’s 2025 No Drop assessment put non-revenue water, meaning water that is supplied but never billed, at 47.3% nationally. The international average is about 30%. Majodina has estimated the cost at about R26bn a year. The two governments also renewed a separate water memorandum in March 2023.