Two organisations representing mostly small-scale farmers hit out at the 58-hour water outage as Rand Water undertakes extensive maintenance in Johannesburg, describing it as “distasteful” and especially severe for the poor.
More than 100 areas of Johannesburg, SA’s biggest metro with 6-million residents, are affected by the water outage as Rand Water undertakes planned maintenance, which started at 7pm on Tuesday and is scheduled to be completed at 5am on Friday. The work involves replacing multiple valves at the Vereeniging water treatment plant, the Eikenhof booster pumping station and Zuikerbosch water treatment plant, and electrical boards at Lethabo pumping station.
National African Farmers Union (Nafu) president Jabu Mahlangu said small-scale farmers were being hit especially hard because most commercial farmers had various sources of water including boreholes.
“We have commercial farmers in our ranks, which are very few, then we have those who farm in 3ha to 20ha farms, and then there’s backyard farmers who are very crucial for food security. They are the ones on the receiving end of this water outage,” Mahlangu said.
Rand Water supplies the Gauteng metros of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and the capital city of 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.
“This situation is very sad. Look, we accept the need to refurbish our water infrastructure because if we don’t, we will be faced with the same issue that confronted Eskom. But if you shut the whole of Joburg to achieve this objective, it’s not helping. This should have been done in a staggered manner. It’s a painful and distasteful occurrence,” Mahlangu said, adding that crops were at risk.
“We are disgusted about it, but there’s nothing we can do as authorities have already taken their decision. Hopefully our members will never get subjected to this again,” Mahlangu added.
Kobedi Pilane, CEO of the African Poultry Producers, which represents black poultry farmers and is a member of the African Farmers’ Association of SA (Afasa), said most members were involved in mixed farming, which involves the growing of crops and rearing of livestock.
“This is affecting them very badly, I’ve spoken to a few of them and they are scrambling for water. This [maintenance programme] is cumbersome. It is now hitting on the food security of the most vulnerable in society,” Pilane said.
Johannesburg Water said it is providing stationary tankers in critical areas such as hospitals, clinics, municipal offices, schools, and police stations. “There are also roaming water tankers across the suburbs that are affected. We thank residents who heeded the call to store water ahead of the Rand Water shutdown,” it said.
The planned maintenance comes after water & sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu revealed recently that water infrastructure backlogs will cost R89.9bn a year over 10 years, “with 3,698,074 kilolitres of water lost every single day due to infrastructure failure and leakages”.
DA shadow minister of water & sanitation Leon Basson said: “This costs SA R250m every single year.”
According to the 2022 Green Drop report by the department of water & sanitation, one-third of SA’s 1,186 water supply networks are at high to critical risk of failure. The report found that only 40% of systems met microbiological standards and 23% met chemical standards for water quality.
Water Research Commission CEO Jennifer Molwantwa told Business Day on Wednesday the maintenance would improve the area’s supply.
Water was a finite resource and SA is a water scarce country, Molwantwa said. “We need to be concerned how we use this resource to sustain us for a longer period,” she added.
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