Gauteng has recently been hit by water outages sometimes lasting for days, and water & sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu says the relationship between supply and demand for treated water in the province is “very tight”.
“The system is vulnerable to disruptions caused by heavy load-shedding, electromechanical breakdowns or theft of cables.
“Usually, such breakdowns would not have a noticeable effect on water supply due to the ability to draw on reserve supply capacity, but now there is no reserve supply capacity. Because the water is usually gravity-fed from municipal reservoirs to households, high-lying areas are worst affected by disruptions in supply,” the minister said in a written reply to a parliamentary question.
ANC MP Mfana Mashego wanted to know whether Mchunu’s department has made plans to ensure that water and sanitation infrastructure in Gauteng and the Western Cape is adequate to meet the demands of a growing population.
Mchunu said municipalities in Gauteng need to improve their billing and revenue collection and allocate more funding to maintenance to reduce leaks and lessen the risk of water supply disruptions in future.
“There are also investments that they can make in pumps and reservoirs which can improve their ability to withstand the ... disruptions. The City of Joburg is currently implementing several such investments.”
Demand for water in Gauteng has grown rapidly, largely due to population growth. In addition, there are increasing leaks in municipal distribution systems.
Mchunu noted that Rand Water’s total current supply capacity is 5,200-million litres of treated drinking water a day, and it is already exceeding its abstraction limit from the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS). It will be possible for Rand Water to increase its abstraction of water from the IVRS only after the R40bn phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) comes online. It is due to be completed in 2028. The LHWP transfers water from Lesotho into the IVRS.
“Rand Water has a R35bn capital programme, which is timed to result in substantial additional treatment and storage capacity becoming available when LHWP phase 2 comes online. This includes the recently completed R3.5bn augmentation of the capacity of its Zuikerbosch water treatment plant by 150-million litres per day. This additional capacity is now contributing to reducing the risk of shortages of water for Rand Water’s municipal customers but is also contributing to the over-extraction of water from the IVRS by Rand Water,” Mchunu said.
Mchunu warned that even after LHWP phase 2 comes on stream, Gauteng’s long-term water consumption will need to be carefully managed because there are limits to which further phases of LHWP or other water transfer projects can continue to provide additional water to Gauteng at an affordable cost.
“The reality is that SA is a water-scarce country with limited sustainable water resources and among the top 30 driest countries globally,” he noted.
He said the department of water & sanitation will work with Rand Water and municipalities in Gauteng to implement a more effective communications strategy on the need to use water more sparingly.
“Average per capita water consumption in Gauteng is 253l per day compared to the world average of 173l per capita per day. If water supply disruptions are to be avoided in Gauteng in future, a culture of careful water use needs to be promoted and awareness raised of the fact that if some people do not use water sparingly other people will get none.”
With regard to the Western Cape, Mchunu said more than half a million people had migrated into the province in the last fiscal year to date, with vandalism adding to the strain on water and sanitation infrastructure. The department has allocated R3bn over the next three years to fund infrastructure projects in the province to ensure security of supply.
These include the R4bn project to raise the wall of Clanwilliam Dam. Also, the Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority is in the process of raising finance for the Berg River Voelvlei Augmentation Scheme. The project will increase the yield of the Voelvlei Dam, improve regional water security and create a more reliable supply to domestic, agricultural and industrial water users, Mchunu said.
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