Rand Water completes maintenance, but municipal failures may leave taps dry

Residents can expect water supply to return after Rand Water completed major maintenance ahead of schedule.

Rand Water spokesperson Makenosi Maroo confirmed the utility completed the maintenance to key infrastructures that started last week, but warned the water supply issues from the municipality to consumer would remain the same.

“Work on the B16 project is complete and pumping at Mapleton has officially started” – but the water supply doesn’t return instantly as the system needs time to build capacity, Maroo said.

Water shortages affected parts of Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Midvaal municipality, Emfuleni municipality, Govan Mbeki municipality, Victor Khanye municipality and Thembisile Hani municipality.

Municipalities called to maintain infrastructure

Water CAN’s Ferrial Adam said maintenance the past weekend would help in terms of bulk supply from Rand Water, but not from municipality to the consumer.

“What needs to happen is that similarly at the municipal level, all municipalities need to fund their infrastructure better and do maintenance,” Adam said.

“Rand Water supplies four municipalities. I don’t think any of the municipalities are doing it well. Joburg is the melting pot at the moment.

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“The maintenance is not drastically different from what we are experiencing in Johannesburg.”

Residents were still going to get intermittent supply and water cuts, as well as leaks, Adam said.

“We still have very high non-revenue water through leaks until the City of Joburg get serious and decides to fund this.”

‘Water systems falling apart’

Adam asked why the city presented good turnaround strategies, knowing they didn’t have the funds.

“From the strategy, you can see they know where the problems are, but it seems they don’t get that they need to fix the infrastructure.

“You cannot go around shouting economic development when your water systems are falling apart, your electricity systems are falling apart and your roads are falling apart.

“They need to focus on those issues and fix those before everything else,” Adam said. “They knew they had 42 leaking reservoirs. They say they have identified the key 20 but they are getting nowhere. Not one tender has been issued, while residents have to accept the situation,” she said.

Consumers blamed

AfriForum’s advisor in environmental affairs Marais de Vaal said the metros concerned should refrain from using residents as scapegoats.

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They should start dealing with the real issues – outdated infrastructure that is not properly maintained, gross mismanagement of the resources and serious water losses, driven by illegal connections and leaks.

“AfriForum is raising the alarm over the misleading narrative pushed by government entities regarding the escalating water crisis in Gauteng,” De Vaal said.

“The parliamentary portfolio committee on water and sanitation last month again made an appeal for residents to use water sparingly and urgently reduce consumption to global norms.

“AfriForum argues that these ongoing appeals are based on the misinterpretation of data, which unfairly and solely place the blame on consumers.

“They are all the while diverting attention from Gauteng’s metropolitan municipalities’ [Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg and Tshwane] mismanagement of the resource,” De Vaal said.

Detailed records of metros

AfriForum earlier this year submitted formal applications in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act to all three metros to obtain access to detailed records on water usage over the past five years – from July 2019 to June last year.

“Only the Tshwane municipality provided information in this regard. The failure of the other two municipalities to make this important information available raises serious concerns about their commitment to transparency and their ability to address the crisis,” De Vaal said.

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