The City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) again alerts residents and businesses of the water supply challenges that the metro faces and urges all consumers to put in place water conservation measures.
According to Themba Gadebe, the spokesperson for the CoE, one of the most effective ways to save portable water is to reuse water or rely on alternative sources, like rain and boreholes, when conducting activities like watering your garden, washing cars and cleaning outdoor areas.
“Consumers can use simple methods to catch rainwater and grey water for this purpose. A business owner could, for example, use water that is collected through such a system for their toilets instead of flushing quality drinking water. Residents may do the same, but should ensure that there are no sediments in the water in order to preserve their toilet,” Gadebe said.
How else does the City encourage consumers to be water savvy?
Gadebe ensured: “The CoE does have continuous water conservation campaigns. The Water and Sanitation Department conducts visits at pre-, primary- and high schools throughout the City and runs various programmes with the schools.
“Priority is placed on schools with high water consumption and those located in areas that have high demand.”
The department also conducts roadshows and exhibitions at shopping centres, and the CoEs customer care centres.
“More recently, the team has been part of the Covid-19 community awareness campaign that is spearheaded by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and a service blitz that took place in Kempton Park.”
Gadebe didn’t specify at which time this took place.
“The City is in the process of finalising its peak season awareness campaign which will be launched during the month of September through various media platforms.”
In a letter to the editor, a reader begged the question as to “why the City links consumption to sanitation?”
Gadebe replied that the City uses the ‘volume-based sewerage disposal charges method’ in which the volume of sewage discharged to sewer is determined as a fraction/percentage of water consumed at the property.
“The water and sewerage is billed according to a step tariff dependent on the household’s consumption over the billing period. The incentive for customers who utilise less water is therefore the saving on their bill. By using grey water to flush the toilet means that you will be charged less as you would have used less water from the municipal supply.”
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