Johannesburg is set to spend R340m over the next three years to jack up its infrastructure to ensure continuous supply of water to the metro’s 6-million residents.
This was revealed by Johannesburg Water managing director Ntshavheni Mukwevho at a media briefing on Tuesday.
The briefing followed an emergency meeting on Monday by water & sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu with representatives from the Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metros, local and district municipalities and Rand Water to discuss supply challenges in Gauteng. Johannesburg Water gets its water supply from bulk water supplier Rand Water.
Joburg Water was among the city’s 13 entities that received the largest share of the R77.3bn budget for 2022/2023 tabled in May, when it was allocated an operational budget of R13.9bn (R13.4bn in 2021) to address infrastructure and water challenges in SA’s economic hub of Joburg.
Mukwevho said Rand Water experienced a power failure at its Vereeniging water works in September, which resulted in a 50% reduction in bulk water supply to Eikenhof pump station.
“Since the Eikenhof system, especially the supply to Commando Road, is vulnerable, there was a negative impact on the Crosby, Brixton and Hurst Hill supply zones in that we experienced water supply interruptions to the high-lying areas. However, after the issue was resolved on September 23, the system started to recover,” Mukwevho said.
There were several other power supply issues to various water purification works during September, he said.
Mukwevho said an agreement was reached during the meeting with Mchunu on Monday that the Commando supply will be prioritised. Furthermore, Johannesburg Water will in the next three years invest R340m to expand the Commando system’s scope and infrastructure to ensure continuous water supply to the residents of the City of Johannesburg.
“We are currently working with all relevant stakeholders, including Rand Water and City Power to minimise the impact of the recent challenges.”
Overuse of water in the province is continuing, putting a strain on the vulnerable system. This led to Rand Water informing customers of the need to restrict water supply, but department of water & sanitation spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said this did not constitute a crisis.
City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava said the power utility was working with Joburg Water to ensure water supply was not interrupted. “One of the things we are looking at is to see how to exclude them from load-shedding. The problem currently is that most of Joburg Water facilities are embedded within our network, making it difficult to exempt them. We are also looking at partnering with them on the off-grid solutions,” Mashava said.
Joburg executive mayor Dada Morero called on businesses and residents to reduce water wastage. Without providing much detail, he said the metro was looking into going to the market to raise capital to replenish the city’s ageing infrastructure. The city is dogged by a R300bn infrastructure backlog.
On Monday, Mchunu said the government would increase the bulk water allocation to Rand Water as a stopgap measure aimed at alleviating water challenges dogging Gauteng as demand is fast outstripping supply.
The department said bulk water supplier Rand Water now abstracts 4,400 megalitres (Ml) of water from the Vaal Dam and has already exceeded this allocation by 1,600Ml since the beginning of the spring season on September 1.
Ratau told Business Day that 4,400Ml of water “are enough for Rand Water to supply Gauteng”, which has a population of about 15-million residents.
Rand Water is crucial to the economy as it supplies the Gauteng metros of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and the 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.
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