As fears of a looming day zero continue to grip residents, the Gauteng provincial government has moved to calm anxieties, activating a water operations centre in Midrand to stabilise supply and firmly dismiss predictions of taps running dry.
The water intergovernmental relations (IGR) operations centre, launched at the Provincial Disaster Management Centre on February 9, is designed to co-ordinate urgent interventions across municipalities and water entities. It was launched following an IGR meeting convened by MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Jacob Mamabolo.
Read more: Midrand residents demand answers as water crisis stretches beyond two weeks
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi assigned Mamabolo the task of ensuring a speedy resolution to the challenges. Prioritising the restoration of services, and urgently working with, and through, the IGR platform to ensure that all the challenges are resolved. Authorities insist Gauteng is not facing a day zero scenario, emphasising that the province has sufficient bulk water, with the real challenge lying in infrastructure failures, leaks, high consumption, and system inefficiencies.
The operations centre brings together national government departments, Rand Water, metropolitan and local municipalities, and key provincial entities. Its purpose is to strengthen co-ordination, enable real-time system monitoring, improve joint decision-making, and provide a single source of verified information on the state of the provincial water system.
On the first day of the operations centre being launched, Mamabolo led a team to one of the city’s hot spots at the Midrand depot reservoir, to monitor water supply and demand, and the progress being made to restore services.
While early signs of recovery have been observed in parts of the system supported by pressure management, reservoir throttling, and strategic load-shifting, the province remains cognisant of the structural challenges facing Gauteng’s water network. Storage levels remain under pressure, with high consumption, ageing infrastructure, non-revenue water, and rapid population growth continuing to place strain on the system.
Also read: Government targets 90% reservoir capacity by Sunday, amid Gauteng water crisis
Through the water IGR operations centre, immediate interventions are being fast-tracked, including leak detection and repair, reservoir refurbishment, operational support to municipalities, and the strengthening of early-warning and communication systems. Parallel work is underway to support municipalities in developing credible funding proposals to unlock medium and long-term investment in critical water infrastructure.
“As a province,” said Mamabolo, “we believe that we can tackle the challenges facing our people through co-operation and collaboration, and not through finger-pointing.
“We have enough water to supply our residents. What we are focusing on now is addressing the challenges that cause interruptions to supply. It is therefore incorrect to suggest that there will be a day zero in Gauteng.”
The government remains firmly committed to working with all three spheres of government, together with the water sector and communities, to ensure the secure, reliable, and sustainable provision of water to the people of the province.
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