In South Africa, Misgund residents receive water for only one to two hours a day — Daily Maverick
In the settlement of Misgund in South Africa's Eastern Cape province, residents report that water is supplied through taps for only one to two hours a day, and sometimes there is no water for several days. As Daily Maverick reports, residents of the community, which has about 500 households, say they have had water supply problems since 2011.
Staff at Twinkle Twinkle Daycare store water in containers and carry buckets to flush toilets when there is no water in the taps. The facility's owner, Elize Berris, said that water usually comes on at around 17:00 to 19:00. According to her, the water is brown and has an unpleasant taste, so the daycare uses rainwater and water from one employee's tank for drinking and cooking.
Water quality and lack of testing
Data from the South African Department of Water and Sanitation's regulatory dashboard show that over the past 12 months, water in Misgund met acute microbiological safety standards in only 50% of cases. This indicator takes into account whether drinking water contains faecal bacteria at a concentration that may pose an immediate health risk.
Aesthetic compliance indicators concerning the water's colour, taste and smell, as well as compliance with disinfectant requirements, stood at 0%. According to the publication, this means that such checks were not carried out. Compliance with the minimum water-testing requirements programme was 39.2%: this was the share of required analyses that were actually conducted. The operational compliance of the water treatment system stood at 67.9%.
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Municipal problems
The draft 2025/26 annual report of the Kou-Kamma Municipality states that 12,820 households across the municipality have adequate water supply, while 873 do not reach the minimum service level. The document acknowledges that unstable water supply affects poorer households the most, as they cannot install their own tanks, boreholes or water reuse systems.
The municipality estimates that about 210 million rand is needed to upgrade and maintain Kou-Kamma's water and sanitation infrastructure. The report also refers to water shortages in the Langkloof region, infrastructure damage caused by May downpours and floods, and the sharing of water resources with farms. Water is delivered daily by tanker trucks to critical areas.
Misgund's bulk water supply system was upgraded using a regional infrastructure grant, and the upgraded water treatment plant was handed over to the municipality in March 2026. Kou-Kamma authorities did not respond to requests regarding the reasons for the intermittent supply, the water's colour, its testing and emergency deliveries.
