Rand Water reiterates its call for Gauteng residents to use water sparingly

Rand Water has continued to urge Gauteng residents to use water sparingly at least until the province experiences more rainfall and fewer heatwaves.

Gauteng water restrictions

The water utility’s CEO Sipho Mosai briefed the media on Friday on water supply challenges amid water restrictions implemented by Gauteng metros in the parts of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.

Since the beginning of the spring season, there has been an increased demand for water from the municipalities’ residents, resulting in deteriorating water levels in their reservoirs.

ALSO READ: Rand Water blames municipalities for water crisis in Gauteng

This week, Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu committed to increasing the bulk water allocation to Rand Water as an emergency measure to address water shortages in the Gauteng metros, districts and local municipalities.

Mosai said South Africa was a water scarces country and relied on its landlocked neighbour, Lesotho, for most of its water supply.

He said because of this, the demand for water was high during the spring and summer seasons, which resulted in some metros implementing restrictions to conserve their water.

“All the water that the people of Gauteng consume comes from Lesotho. South Africa does not have sufficient water resources or fresh water in or within the country that is enough to maintain our water requirements in the now and in the future,” Mosai said.

“I rather have it that we use water sparingly than to build more and more dams in a foreign country because we are a water scares country,” he added.

18 million consumers supplied water daily

The Rand Water CEO said on average the entity supplied 4 600 million litres or megalitres of water a day to about 18 municipalities, mainly in Gauteng.

He said the peak was around 5 000 megalitres of water a day during the summer season.

“On average we supply about 4 600 [megalitres of water a day], but we have an infrastructure that provides for additional water for peak demands like when we are having a situation of increased water demand, beginning in September, and we can easily peak at 5 000 million litres of water a day.

“We have calculated the number of consumers in our operation, not only in Gauteng, to be just under 18 million consumers,” he said.

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Role of municipalities

Mosai said as a bulk water supplier, Rand Water was not responsible for determining the water restrictions implemented by municipalities.

He said municipalities were responsible for water reticulation or supply to households.

“We do not determine which suburb must have water and which suburb must not have water.

“It is the municipalities’ responsibility to work out the modalities of where water must come and how to manage it when it leaves our reservoirs.”

The CEO also reacted to criticism that Rand Water was not maintaining its infrastructure and should have predicted the water crisis facing Gauteng municipalities.

He said this was not true because the entity produced a five-year integrated development plan that is reviewed every year to examine the water demand from their municipalities.

“We know and saw this coming, not only for this summer but for many months to come.”

Mosai added that Rand Water was constantly constructing new plants, pipes and reservoirs to add to their bulk water infrastructure.

“We operate, repair and maintain our infrastructure and this cycle is continuously happening… We just don’t wake up and decide that we’re upgrading a plant. It’s demand-driven from municipalities,” he said.

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