Good water for our people: introducing Big Five Waters

Water is where everything starts. It is in the porridge pot, at the school tap and in the bottle packed beside a lunch box. Today we are proud to introduce Big Five Waters, the newest part of Big Five Group and the 11th of our pillars.

Big Five Waters is a Feed pillar, standing beside Big Five Agri and Big Five Foods. It carries the same mission as the rest of the Group, Feed · Educate · Empower, and it puts that mission in a bottle.

Umthombo: the source

Our range is called Umthombo, isiZulu for a spring: the source. Every Umthombo water, sparkling or still, is infused with vitamins and minerals, and each one comes in a 500ml bottle.

There are five sparkling flavours, each one vitamin- and mineral-infused:

Umthombo Naartjie
Umthombo Litchi
Umthombo Passion Fruit
Umthombo Lemon-Lime
Umthombo Mixed Berry

Alongside them is Umthombo Still: calm water from the same source, infused with vitamins and minerals, in the same 500ml bottle as the sparkling range. It is for tables, meetings and anyone who prefers it flat.

One grab-and-go size runs across the whole range, made for fridges, lunch boxes and events. The whole idea is simple.

Good water for our people.

Big Five Waters

Umthombo · 500ml

The Umthombo range

500ml
SparklingUmthombo NaartjieNaartjie-flavoured sparkling water, infused with vitamins and minerals.
500ml
SparklingUmthombo LitchiLitchi-flavoured sparkling water, infused with vitamins and minerals.
500ml
SparklingUmthombo Passion FruitPassion fruit-flavoured sparkling water, infused with vitamins and minerals.
500ml
SparklingUmthombo Lemon-LimeLemon-lime-flavoured sparkling water, infused with vitamins and minerals.
500ml
SparklingUmthombo Mixed BerryMixed berry-flavoured sparkling water, infused with vitamins and minerals.
500ml
StillUmthombo StillStill water, infused with vitamins and minerals, in the same 500ml bottle as the sparkling range.

See the full range on /waters

Almost a year in the making

Umthombo did not happen overnight. We have been working on Big Five Waters for just under a year to get the flavours exactly right.

That work was done through rigorous research and analysis, with one aim: flavours, minerals and a taste that are acceptable to the mass market in Africa. A drink made for Africa has to be enjoyed by Africa.

Why water, and why now

Access to safe drinking water is a human right. The UN General Assembly recognised the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation in 2010, and South Africa’s Constitution gives everyone the right to have access to sufficient food and water.

The world is not there yet. According to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, 2.1 billion people still lacked safely managed drinking water in 2024, about one in four people on earth, and 106 million people still drank surface water.

South Africa has made real progress. Statistics South Africa’s General Household Survey 2024 found that 87.7% of households have access to piped or tap water, in the dwelling, on site or off site. Only 46.4% have piped water inside the dwelling itself, though, and 33.7% of households reported water interruptions lasting more than two days at a time, or 15 days in total over the past year, up from 24.3% in 2012.

Quality matters as much as access. In the Department of Water and Sanitation’s 2023 Blue Drop Report, which assessed all 958 of the country’s water supply systems, municipalities’ own tests for 2021/22 showed 54% of systems achieving excellent or good microbiological water quality compliance and 46% achieving poor or bad compliance. The Department notes that drinking water quality is generally good in the major metropolitan areas.

A bottle does not fix a pipe, and Big Five Waters is no substitute for the public water services every community deserves. What we can do is put good water within easy reach: in shops, at events, in tuck shops and on office fridges, with a taste people look forward to.

Vitamins, minerals and everyday hydration

The World Health Organization describes micronutrients as the vitamins and minerals the body needs in very small amounts, with deficiencies in iron, vitamin A and iodine the most common around the world, particularly in children and pregnant women. WHO calls these deficiencies “hidden hunger”: someone can have food on the plate and still miss out on the vitamins and minerals they need.

South Africa knows this challenge well. The South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (SANHANES-1), with fieldwork in 2012, found that 43.6% of children under five were vitamin A deficient. That is why food fortification sits at the heart of the Group’s Feed work, from Big Five Foods’ fortified porridges and one-pot meals to the NSNP pathway.

Umthombo brings that thinking to the drinks fridge. Every bottle is vitamin- and mineral-infused and made to support everyday hydration. It is a refreshing drink, not a medicine or a supplement: it is not intended to treat, cure or prevent any disease, and it does not replace a varied, balanced diet. What it can do is make a good choice a delicious one.

One Group, one mission

Big Five Waters joins a Group that is already on the ground. Big Five Foods has delivered 500k+ meals (programme-reported), and its National School Nutrition Programme pathway with the Department of Basic Education is planned to feed 2.5 million children a day. That figure is a DBE plan scale, not a current daily headcount.

Water belongs beside food. With Agri, Foods and now Waters, the Feed side of the Group reaches from the field to the plate to the glass.

Where Umthombo fits

Retail & distributors: shelf and fridge space for a five-flavour sparkling range plus still water.
Events & hospitality: conferences, venues and functions that want a local, flavoured alternative.
Schools & institutions: tuck shops, sports days and institutional catering alongside Big Five Foods.
Corporate & CSI: office fridges, staff wellness days and community programmes.

Getting Umthombo into your fridge takes three steps. Tell us the need: your organisation, region, flavours of interest and a rough volume. We confirm availability and match a flavour mix to your channel. Then we agree delivery with you directly, and ask how each flavour sold.

Stock Umthombo, partner with us

If you run a shop, a venue, a school programme, a hospitality group or a corporate wellness day, we would love to hear from you. One enquiry, and we match the flavours.

Discover Big Five Waters · Stock / sample enquiry · Partner with Big Five Group

Good water for our people. Siyabonga.