Water throttling implemented for Joburg residents
Department of Water and Sanitation and joint entities implement water throttling to enable reservoir levels to recover.
The majority of areas in Johannesburg have faced frequent water supply disruptions, affecting residents and businesses alike.
In October, residents were faced with two weeks of low water supply after a ruptured pipe burst was reported at the Honeydew Reservoir, as well as an Eikenhof substation outage affecting Rand Water’s supply to areas.
To address these challenges, the Ministry of Water and Sanitation, Gauteng Office of the Premier, City of Johannesburg (CoJ), Johannesburg Water (JW), and Rand Water convened an urgent meeting on November 10.
According to the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Pemmy Majodina, the main underlying cause of the disruptions is that the peak demand for water is close to, and occasionally exceeds, the availability of the city’s infrastructure challenges and non-revenue water losses, which account for 35% of the total water supply.
To mitigate these challenges, CoJ has implemented several measures, including:
• Throttling of water supply between 21:00 and 04:00 to enable reservoir levels to recover overnight
• Emergency repairs of large-diameter pipe water leaks and increasing the number of teams on standby
• Advanced pressure management systems reduce water losses at night
• Leak detection initiatives to identify burst pipes, leaking meters and valves
“The Department of Water and Sanitation is working on the second phase of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which involves the construction of an intricate network of tunnels and dams to divert water from the mountains of Lesotho to South Africa. It will provide water for South Africa and money and hydroelectricity for Lesotho.
“This phase will provide an additional 490 million cubic meters of water per annum to the Integrated Vaal River System by 2028. Rand Water is also implementing a R35b five-year rolling capital works programme to increase storage capacity and water treatment capacity,” Majodina explained.
Majodina further added that a comprehensive public awareness campaign will be launched to make residents aware of the importance of water conservation and water use efficiency.
“This campaign aims to reduce the city’s average water consumption, which currently stands at 279 litres per person per day, which is 60% above the world average,” Majodina adds.
