Africa-Press – South-Africa. Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu has promised to increase the bulk water allocation to the Rand Water system.
This is an emergency measure put in place for nine months to address water shortages in Gauteng’s metros, districts, and local municipalities.
Mchunu met with water officials in Gauteng on Monday morning after the Commando System – a water system which supplies the Brixton reservoir, Crosby pump station and Hursthill reservoirs – went from low to empty.
A collapse of the system in the area left thousands of residents and businesses without water.
Mchunu said a water room committee, comprising the Department of Water and Sanitation, Rand Water, all Gauteng’s municipalities, and the business sector would be set up to provide a holistic coordination, provision and management of water system in the province.
Rand Water supplies 17 million people in the City of Johannesburg, City of Ekurhuleni, City of Tshwane, Rand West Local Municipality, Mogale City Local Municipality, and Rustenburg Local Municipality.
“We note the increase in water usage and restrictions imposed by Rand Water in response to deteriorating water levels in their reservoirs, therefore, we will increase temporarily the allocation for abstraction of bulk water to Rand Water’s system in order to meet the demand,” Mchunu said in a statement after Monday’s meeting.
“This should bring relief to some metros, namely Johannesburg, Tshwane and Mogale City District Municipality, however, the measure is for a period of nine months while we seek more permanent solutions to water usage and management,” he added.
Rand Water extracts 4 400 mega litres of water and has already exceeded this allocation by more than 1 600 mega litres since the beginning of the spring season.
Mchunu said while the increased allocation would bring some relief to those municipalities experiencing restrictions due to high usage and demand, they needed to come up with measures to deal with those wasting water, including imposing penalties and addressing the challenge of water leaks on municipal reticulation systems.
“As a country, we are experiencing the scarcity of water, yet we allow for up to 40% of our water to be lost to leakage. This undermines our efforts to address water challenges.”
He added water use had risen in recent weeks due to the continued heat wave “which has been happening in this period over the last two to three years, compounded by delayed summer rains in the inland provinces leading to people using potable water for uses that would have ordinarily been taken care of by rains, such as watering gardens and car wash enterprises, as well as water losses due to leaks in the reticulation part of the system”.
Mchunu said the continued overuse in the province had put a strain on the system that led to Rand Water having to inform its customers of the need to restrict water flow by 30% and higher in some instances.
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