Johannesburg Water SOC Ltd

Johannesburg Water SOC Ltd supplies water and sanitation services to the City of Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city. The City owns Johannesburg Water, which manages an extensive network of treatment works, reservoirs and pipelines serving millions of residents and businesses.

Registered name

Johannesburg Water SOC Ltd

Type

Municipal-owned entity (water and sanitation)

Fields funded

Civil, electrical and mechanical engineering

Website

johannesburgwater.co.za

Email

customer@jwater.co.za

Phone

+27 11 688 1400

Water services for poor households

Johannesburg Water’s work includes helping residents who cannot afford water. The City of Johannesburg offers the Expanded Social Package (ESP) to indigent residents, targeting vulnerable people such as the unemployed, young people, people with disabilities, displaced persons and senior citizens. Residents who qualify submit documents at the City’s Revenue Customer Service Centres, and Johannesburg Water publishes brochures on the water policy and on registering prepaid water meter customers for the package.

Why Johannesburg Water funds engineers

Johannesburg’s water and sanitation infrastructure is extensive and, in parts, ageing. Maintaining, repairing and expanding it to keep pace with the city’s growth needs a continual supply of qualified engineers, according to a provider record checked in August 2026. As a municipal entity, Johannesburg Water also carries a public service mandate to build the technical capacity the city needs for reliable services.

What the bursary offers and requires

Johannesburg Water’s bursary supports students in civil, electrical and mechanical engineering, the fields most directly relevant to its operations. The bursary covers tuition fees, textbooks and related study costs, and Johannesburg Water awards it on a combination of academic merit and financial need.

A work-back obligation applies. When a bursar completes their studies, Johannesburg Water requires them to work under a service contract for as many years as they received funding. A student funded for four years should therefore expect four years of work at Johannesburg Water.

Timing

The last dated Johannesburg Water round closed on 24 January 2025, and no 2027 call had been published when BursariesAfrica checked. Watch Johannesburg Water’s website from late 2026.

How to research Johannesburg Water

Read about the water supply challenges Johannesburg has faced, such as outages, leaks and reservoir levels, and think about how your engineering field could help. Email Johannesburg Water to ask when the next bursary opens, which universities qualify and where bursars work during the service contract.

See our civil engineering bursaries page for other water utilities.