It would seem that the plight of water supply has been caught up in politics.

While residents of Germiston, Bedfordview and even Edenvale struggled without water for days and during the long weekend, the DA called for the resignation of Rand Water’s chief executive officer.

Water has still not been restored in numerous Germiston areas.

Also read: Zuikerbosch water treatment affected by severe thunderstorm

Rand Water has since hit back at the DA, accusing DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga of running a political campaign on water issues leading up to the elections next year.

This is whilst Germiston residents have reported illnesses due to the now extended water outage which was first reported on September 19.

“Rand Water is a provider for 18 municipalities through a network of 3 500km of large diameter pipelines and 59 strategically located service reservoirs. Rand Water is over-abstracting and producing water well above its permitted abstraction limit,” said Makenosi Maroo, Rand Water’s spokesperson.

“This over-abstraction is necessitated by the high demand from municipalities. In terms of its legislative mandate, Rand Water is limited to the supply of water in large quantities to municipalities and, therefore, is not a water services authority.”
He added that the entity does not distribute water to individual households, which is the legislative mandate of municipalities.

Also read: Water outage extends to more areas

The latest water outage was first reported when Rand Water’s Zuikerbosch water treatment plant power lines were affected by the severe thunderstorm around midnight on September 19 and subsequently tripped the plant.

During attempts to restart the plant, faults along the overhead power lines supplying the auxiliary plant were identified. The power failure resulted in the loss of 2 billion litres per day. Consequently, this load reduction impacted municipalities supplied by the treatment plant and affected several areas including, Germiston, Edenvale and Bedfordview.

By September 23, the City of Ekurhuleni reported that the water supply in some Ekurhuleni areas had improved. By the morning of September 26, many Germiston areas were still without water.

In response to the call for the resignation of its CEO, Rand Water stated that to ensure continuous water supply they plan for the refurbishment and augmentation of infrastructure.

Also read: Water supply in Ekurhuleni improves

“The infrastructure development planning document details a 20-year plan and is reviewed annually as it considers the ability of infrastructure to meet the adopted demand projection for the medium-to-long-term future demands,” said Maroo, who added that the demand projection combines customer-based information and historical and demographic information.

“In February, Rand Water launched a new post-tensioned 210 million litre concrete reservoir in Vlakfontein. This reservoir augments storage capacity in the Mapleton system, which supplies Tshwane and Ekurhuleni primarily.

“It receives water from the Zuikerbosch purification and pumping station via two pipes. These pipes are 2 100mm in diameter and distribute potable water into various municipalities via two outgoing pipelines which are also 2 100mm in diameter,” said Maroo.

She said as part of Rand Water’s R34-b capital works programme to augment infrastructure and increase supply capacity, RW recently completed an augmentation of the capacity of its Zuikerbosch water treatment plant, adding 150 million litres per day.
Rand Water plans to add another 450ML/d in the next 24 months.

“It should be noted that during this time of the year, water demand outstrips supply capacity. Since the beginning of spring, Rand Water’s bulk water provision to municipalities has increased from an average of 4 300 million litres of water a day to 4 800 million litres of water a day.

ALSO READ: Germiston business threatened by water outage

“The challenge is not lack of capacity to supply water, but rather high consumption because of this hot period.”
The Department of Water and Sanitation recently issued a report, which states that non-revenue water in the municipal space is 42,4%.

“Although municipal efforts are commendable in curbing this high non-revenue water, the department that has been monitoring the water losses within the system since 2010 has noted that the actual demand is more than the projected system supply, meaning that the water conservation and demand management measured are not sufficiently implemented to reduce the water demand in municipalities,” said Maroo.

Msimanga said: “Consistent failures on the part of Rand Water to adequately prepare for increased demand and address the failings within the organisation make it clear that Rand Water is yet another rudderless ship.

“Rand Water has caused a humanitarian crisis in Gauteng and they should be held accountable for it. The DA calls on the CEO of Rand Water to resign, failing which the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzu Mchunu, should fire the CEO.”

“Instead of politicking, the DA in Gauteng should be assisting Rand Water and its municipalities to urge all consumers to use water sparingly,” said Maroo.