Joburg mayor’s water spin just full of hot air

Tariff increases tabled in Joburg Council this week don’t mention air. Yet air could be causing thousands of water meters to spin excessively, pushing up ratepayers’ accounts.

Air is part of our water system. Standard meters can’t tell the difference between water and air.

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As Professor Anthony Turton said, water systems were not designed to run dry.

“When they run dry, air enters and it takes a couple of days, maybe a week, to repressurise the system. Airlocks go through the system.”

Turton didn’t mention meters but the phenomenon of air driving water meters is well documented.

“Every time a water pipe bursts, there’s a good chance the municipality will rake in thousands of rands from false water meter readings”, wrote Janek Szymanowski on sans10400. co.za (Sans is SA National Standards).

This is because air passing through consumers’ water meters gives false readings that are charged automatically on water bills.

If you have an unexpectedly high water account, air pressure could be the reason. Air pressure problems are going to get worse, despite Joburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda’s inexpert opinion.

“We’re not even close to assuming it’s a crisis, we have access to water,” Gwamanda told a media briefing.

Alas, he does not understand. Free State University’s Turton says: “It’s the start of a new trend, which is likely to see an acceleration of failures.”

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Airlocks “cause all kinds of damage and you simply get an accelerated failure after you repressurise the system… we can expect failures to simply accelerate”.

“SA has crossed a threshold in terms of water security.

“We are starting to see major systems fail. And the more officials deny the failure, the more it betrays their absolute and total lack of understanding of the complexity,” Turton said.

What can consumers do about air inflating water meter readings, which will happen more frequently as the system deteriorates?

Keep track of water outages in your area. Use that information if you are faced with a massive water bill soon after.

Also, look out for commercially available devices that can limit exposure to air-inflated meter readings.

Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi, whose backroom political machinations delivered Joburg’s current incompetent leadership, can’t solve our water woes.

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Lesufi says he has “summoned all leaders of government, the four local authorities and the national government to our province”.

He wants the matter resolved by the end of the week. That’s absurd. Even if billions of rands were made available overnight, it would still take more than a decade to sort out Joburg Water.

More than 3 000km of old asbestos concrete (AC) piping needs replacing, for starters. Many leaks occur where AC pipes join new HDPE (high density poly ethylene).

It takes care and expertise to connect them without further leaks and airlocks. Funding won’t be made available by the World Bank or National Treasury unless they are convinced that those in charge are capable of implementing such projects.

They would also want detail on revenue collecting ability. Joburg Water’s track record of nearly 50% “nonrevenue water” is a turn-off for investors.

The premier and our mayor are both full of hot air.