SA’S WATER CRISIS: SHOPRITE AND CHECKERS STORES EQUIPPED TO PROVIDE AFFORDABLE WATER

As a water-scarce country, South Africa faces ongoing water shortages driven by shifting weather patterns, infrastructure challenges, and persistent droughts. In response, Shoprite and Checkers have stepped up to support customers by offering purified water at just R1 per litre in the majority of its supermarkets.

“We are aware that our customers and communities face tremendous difficulties during water supply outages, so we have equipped our stores to make water available at the lowest prices,” says Sanjeev Raghubir, Chief sustainability Officer at the Shoprite Group.

To ensure sustained trade and service to customers, most stores have installed large backup water tanks that can typically provide water for three to six days should normal water supply be disrupted. When necessary, water is purchased in bulk to replenish supplies.

Water is purified through a reverse osmosis process and regularly tested onsite, as well as subjected to independent laboratory analysis, to ensure its safety for consumption.

Other water security efforts

A percentage of proceeds from the sale of 500ml and 1.5L Eastern Highlands bottled water sold in all Shoprite and Checkers supermarkets nationally is donated to the Act for Change Water Fund to assist with water relief efforts in communities where it is needed most.

In addition, the retailer is increasing the availability of clean drinking water in rural communities by providing
PlayPumps – merry-go-rounds that pump drinking water as children play on the equipment – to 53 sites across South Africa, which benefits more than 18 000 people.

The Shoprite Group has a long history of reaching out and assisting local communities that have been left without water, including transporting water to drought-stricken KwaZulu-Natal towns such as Ulundi, Vryheid, Harding and iXopo in 2016, providing relief during the Johannesburg hospital water crisis in 2021, and donating
thousands of litres of bottled water to various Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres in 2024.