July 2025 

For six months, the community of Ga-Moela in rural Limpopo was without water. Week after week, residents waited for the municipal Water Services Authority to fix a broken pump, but without luck. 

With the encouragement of Tsogang Water and Sanitation, residents in Ga-Moela came together. They saw that the problem was a broken fan belt on the engine that powered the pump. They visited spares shops in a nearby town and realised that the belt would cost just R300 to replace. Households each contributed a small amount, R10 or R20, to buy and install the belt themselves, restoring water access for Ga-Moela. 

“There are things you can do yourself, without waiting for the municipality to come and assist you”, says Kenny Phasha, the managing director of Tsogang. Phasha spoke to fixlocal about a transformative and collaborative approach to infrastructure development in some of South Africa’s most water-stressed communities.

What is the problem?

Many people in rural Limpopo struggle to access water reliably. According to Stats SA, as of 2024, 37% of households in Limpopo do not have access to piped or tap water in their homes. 

Over the years, various efforts by municipalities, nonprofits, and communities themselves have aimed to improve water access. While some of these systems function well, many communities still lack water infrastructure. And where infrastructure does exist, pumps, boreholes, and pipes often fall into disrepair due to a lack of long-term maintenance, vandalism and absent community support. 

How are they fixing it?

Self-supply

Thousands of households and communities in Limpopo create and maintain their own self-supplied water systems. According to Phasa, communities will “organise themselves, contribute money and buy pipes, to tap water from the streams.” Some also dig boreholes and install pumps. Research by Barbara van Koppen and others had found that at least 70,000 hectares of land in Limpopo is irrigated by self-supplied water systems. 

Larger, community-led water upgrades with collaborative support

Starting in 2018, a community-led multiple water use project was piloted in ten communities in Sekhukhune, Vhembe and Mopani District municipalities, some of the poorest rural areas in South Africa. The project, completed in 2021, upgraded and repaired existing water infrastructure and installed new systems. Most importantly, it created long-term solutions for the maintenance of the pumps, taps, pipes and boreholes installed. 

Today, thanks to the skills transferred and systems set up by this project, communities in Ga-Mokgotho, Ga-Moela, Phiring, Tshakhuma, Khalavha, Lutomboni, Tshiheni, Ha-Gumbu, Thabine and Calais have more reliable and sustainable access to water.

The multiple water use project had the backing of a range of organisations. It was funded by the African Development Bank and the Water Research Commission, a government body. The International Water Management Institute researched its impact, while Limpopo-based NGO Tsogang facilitated community participation and decision-making in each community. The project was also backed by district and local municipalities and provincial government departments. 

What makes it work?

‘Nothing about us without us’: Community-driven at each stage:

It was essential to bring as many community members onto the multiple water use project as possible. For the first six months, before any construction or upgrades began, Tsogang met with residents and local leaders who volunteered their time to form water forums so that “the communities were the ones coming up with the plans,” says Phasha. Importantly, women were well represented. 

Working together, communities created maps of all existing water supplies in each village, sharing indigenous knowledge. For example, some people knew of streams and mountain springs and ways to sustainably get water from them and protect them from contamination. This knowledge helped to design water systems, along with the assistance of people with expertise in engineering and water projects. 

 According to Phasha, the fact that the water upgrades were led by the community means that “you won't have to experience issues of vandalism and theft.” Residents know that if their water supply is cut off, they will suffer, and so they are invested in protecting the taps, tanks, pumps and boreholes.  

Building local skills

Rather than bringing in outside contractors, the project hired and trained members of each community to work on upgrading water infrastructure in their own villages. 

Upskilling residents with plumbing, operations and maintenance expertise meant that when the funded period of the project came to an end, the communities were in a position to continue to repair leaks, replace broken parts and upgrade infrastructure themselves. They did away with waiting for months on end for someone to come from the municipality or an outside organisation. In some villages, people gained enough knowledge and skills to form small cooperatives that now supply services to municipalities.

Residents were also trained in bookkeeping, so when households pool finances to sustain self-supplied water systems, they can fully account for money raised and spent. 

Four years after the funding for the project ended, the water infrastructure continues to be well-maintained and cared for by the ten communities. Tsogang is in the process of upscaling the project to other villages in Limpopo. 

Ultimately, having access to water can be transformative and is a basic human right. Phasha emphasises, “Once people have water, you see they are doing so many things. They start their own smallanyana business, their backyard gardens, and a lot of things that improve their livelihoods.” 

Acknowledgments

Author: Maru Attwood 

Sources:

Operationalizing Community-led water services for multiple uses in South Africa

Photo credit: Tsogang