DA leader John Steenhuisen, who has made the battleground province of Gauteng his base ahead of the municipal elections on November 1, said the persistent water outages in SA’s economic hub were disastrous for residents and the economy.
He said the DA would invest in infrastructure should it win the province’s three metros of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane, which have experienced water outages in recent months due to system failures and operational challenges at bulk water supplier Rand Water.
Reliable access to water has emerged as a key election issue for all political parties ahead of the upcoming municipal elections, especially in the battleground province of Gauteng.
On Wednesday, the DA staged a protest outside the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, Johannesburg, where water and sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu held a meeting with Gauteng mayors to discuss water problems in the province.
Challenges at Rand Water which include demand outstripping supply have left frustrated businesses and residents in SA’s economic hub with little or no supply of the basic need.
Steenhuisen said: “Water outages are disastrous for people, for households, for businesses, for jobs, for mines, for industry, and for municipal income.”
He said even though the Vaal Dam is “over 80% full, Gauteng households and businesses are continuously subjected to water restrictions and water outages, which are becoming more and more frequent across the whole province, and beyond”.
There were three main causes of Gauteng’s collapsing water supplies, said Steenhuisen.
“The first is failures of the ANC national department of water and sanitation, whose responsibility it is to provide bulk water to all the reservoirs of the metros and municipalities in Gauteng. This is compounded by the ANC’s Eskom failures, since pumping and purifying water requires a reliable supply of electricity,” he said.
“The second cause is that water infrastructure in all three Gauteng metros is crumbling under the weight of two decades of ANC neglect. The major reticulation networks that take water from reservoirs to end users are old and breaking.”
The third cause, said Steenhuisen, was that the ANC-led provincial government in Gauteng was doing nothing to stop “mayors from destroying local water infrastructure”.
“Water experts have been warning for years that the ANC’s failure to maintain, replace or upgrade water infrastructure would lead to taps running dry. And now it is happening,” said Steenhuisen, stressing the situation would only “get worse over time if voters keep voting the ANC back into government”.
Rand Water is crucial to the economy as it supplies Gauteng’s metros of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and capital city Tshwane, local municipalities, mines and other industries, as well as parts of Mpumalanga, the North West and the Free State with an average of 3.653-million litres of potable water daily. Crucial sectors of the economy including agriculture, manufacturing and mining rely on water to operate.
In July an explosion at Rand Water’s Palmiet booster pumping station in Alberton left Gauteng’s three metros without water.
After yet another water outage in September, angry residents of South Hills in Johannesburg marched to Rand Water’s offices in Glenvista, demanding answers. Water outages in areas such as South Hills, Linmeyer, Tulisa Park, and Risana, among other areas, resulted in schools shutting down.
Rand Water had said the water cuts were due to “a very sharp increase” in water usage where exceeded supply.
Gauteng premier David Makhura recently encouraged on Joburg mayor Mpho Moerane to provide basic services to the city's 5-million residents ahead of the municipal elections on November 1 including access to water and electricity.
Kgosientso Ramokgopa, the head of investment and infrastructure at the office of the presidency, said last November that the government will implement big-ticket infrastructure development projects worth R350bn across the water, energy, transportation and ICT sectors to create jobs and revive the economy in 2021.
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