Gauteng municipalities battle to mitigate water losses in their precincts

While metropolitan municipalities in Gauteng are grappling to conserve water and encouraging residents to use water sparingly, it seems the problem is due to ailing infrastructure across the province. 

Ferial Adam, executive manager at WaterCan, said there was a high level of infrastructure damage in Gauteng, with old infrastructure not being maintained. 

“The municipalities must own up. They are to blame for not maintaining the infrastructure. 

“There is a report from Joburg Water that reservoirs within the municipality are leaking, but we don't know to what extent they are leaking. We don't know how much water or how bad it is,” she said. 

Rand Water recently warned metropolitan municipalities within Gauteng that water storage levels throughout the province have significantly declined due to excessive withdrawals by municipalities, raising serious concerns. 

It said it had repeatedly warned municipalities in the province about the potential crisis and communicated through letters, held meetings with many municipalities and engaged in discussions at Gauteng’s intergovernmental governance forum and the Gauteng water imbizo.

“Unfortunately, the crisis we sought to prevent has materialised. The water supply systems in Gauteng, including Rand Water reservoirs, are critically low, and the situation is anticipated to worsen with the ongoing heatwave,” said Rand Water. 

Adam said for years Rand Water has been extracting more than what is allowed by the department of water & sanitation. She said it was not something new.

She said the licence had not been renewed in many years and doesn't take into account the increase in population in the metropolitan municipalities. 

“We have water in our integrated Vaal river system. Water is there. The challenge is infrastructure failure. We are in a situation where there are going to be areas without water for an extended period. This time it could be the east of Joburg, the next time it could be Sandton, then it will be Soweto,” she said. 

She said residents will see intermittent supply and intermittent cut-offs.

“ Joburg Water is trying to get a handle on things but doesn't have a strong budget. They need to increase the budget and prioritise maintenance of infrastructure,” she said.

Councillor Nicole van Dyke said the water problem has been going on for the past four years due to ailing network infrastructure. 

“Last year Joburg South was without water for about seven days. Joburg Water has 42% of the system leaking.

“ Unless Joburg Water gets the money, and ability to fix the systems very fast, we are in trouble. They had a meeting with us the other day and told  councillors it is going to be a very difficult summer,” she said.

City of Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said they were conducting community education awareness campaigns to urge communities to use water sparingly. 

The city is on level 1 restrictions. He said seasonal changes with hot weather conditions, theft of water and illegal connections, ageing water infrastructure and population growth result in high water demand and consumption.

“The city has improved the response time to attend to water leaks. There is also a programme focusing on replacement of aged water pipes. The City replaces about 14,000m of aged water pipes per annum. We’re also implementing a pressure management programme through the installation and refurbishment of the pressure reducing valves,” he said. 

City of Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said they had been urging residents to use water sparingly and encouraged them to report leaks.

He said they were educating residents within their municipality, and they have a strategy and campaigns to deal with water issues. 

“We encourage our people to report leaks and ensure we respond immediately. Every drop counts. When we talk about water leaks we are also talking about the tap that is left unclosed,” he said. 

He said the city was building 29 new reservoirs to increase capacity to store water. 

Johannesburg Water said it was accelerating the water demand management strategy to repair leaking reservoirs and  improve pressure management.

“As a stop gap measure, Johannesburg Water has intensified throttling of high consumption reservoirs and areas, specially at night, as a means to improve reservoir capacity for daytime as well as backlog reduction and improved response times for  bursts and leaks within the network,” said Nombuso Shabalala.

The entity said it is fast-tracking the process of removing illegal connections as part of improved credit control as well as replacing unreadable or faulty customer meters.

Joburg Water is also embarking on an initiative to impose level 2 water restrictions which would be more sustainable to reduce overall system demand.

Areas where there is high water consumption in Johannesburg: 

• Alex
• Johannesburg CBD
• Soweto
• Rosettenville
• Lenasia informal settlements
• Berea
• Ivory Park
• Kaalfontein
• Ebony Park
• Commercia
• Brixton, Crosby and Hursthill.

She said infrastructure vandalism and illegal connections have placed a strain on available water capacity.

“Every entity, including our customer, have a part to play in reducing the demands and associated losses. Where supply is compromised, water tankers are dispatched, but tanking doesn’t provide the same comfort as potable water supply to consumers' premises.”

She assured residents the system would not collapse though the infrastructure has challenges.

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