NEWS ANALYSIS: Gauteng’s water security is at risk

Gauteng is in the middle of a water security crisis. 

The provincial government is hesitant to call it a “crisis” but the province is at a point where demand for water is exceeding supply — and unless residents begin changing their consumption behaviour, the situation will get substantially worse. 

“Brown lawns are a badge of honour,” is the kind of mindset shift needed in Gauteng to prevent an all-out water shortage in the coming years. The “brown lawn” motif means the grass has not been watered — it formed part of the messaging of a huge communication campaign when the City of Cape Town endured a severe drought that peaked in 2018. 

Gauteng is not facing the “day zero” scenario the Mother City faced. That was deemed a one in 590 year event, and was so severe there were even rumblings about evacuating the city. Fortunately, Cape Town pulled through with smart administrative interventions and a rapid shift in thinking about water usage among consumers. 

In Gauteng, such a feat would be impossible, given that water usage in the province far exceeds the national average, let alone the international one. While highly unlikely, if Gauteng were to experience such a drought, it would be a disaster due to aged municipal infrastructure, outdated meter systems and poorly managed water resources.

This week Rand Water imposed level 1 water restrictions on the province, but its communication strategy is so weak that many residents are not aware of the restrictions or do not know what they mean. Two weeks ago it briefed the provincial government about the severity of the problem, MEC for infrastructure Jacob Mamabolo tells Business Day; this prompted a province-wide water imbizo and instructions to all councillors in Gauteng to begin alerting their constituencies to the problem.

The national government has partnered with the World Bank 2030 Water Resources Group to address the crisis through working with Rand Water and municipalities across the province. It has recruited former City of Cape Town executive director for water and sanitation Gisela Kaiser, who led the team managing the drought in the City of Cape Town in 2018, to help address the situation in Gauteng.

Aside from working with municipalities, the team will also put together an extensive communication campaign to begin educating residents about their water consumption. 

The water problem in Gauteng goes back to the bungling and political meddling in a crucial mega-project that would have eased the water supply challenge facing the province, whose population growth outstrips its ability to supply services. The blame can also be laid at the door of municipalities, which for the past 15 years have underfunded maintaining water infrastructure across the province, neglecting one of their core functions.

Water department director-general Sean Phillips explains that the problem is rooted in the near-decade-long delay to the completion of phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which was initially meant to come on stream by 2019, but due to delays caused by political interference and mismanagement is now set for completion only in 2028.

“The Lesotho Highlands Water Project was planned for 2019. If it had been completed, we would not be experiencing the severe water supply problems in Gauteng. It is now likely to be completed in 2028,” he said.

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project was planned for 2019. If it had been completed, we would not be experiencing the severe water supply problems in Gauteng.

—  Sean Phillips, water department director-general

“The big underlying problem is that demand is exceeding the amount of water Rand Water can supply. We are not allowing them to extract more from the Vaal, we would be irresponsible if we allowed that ... we will only allow for that when phase 2 comes on in 2028.”

Until then, Gauteng’s water consumption has to be carefully managed. Phillips explains that the national water department cannot allow Rand Water to extract more than a carefully managed amount of water from the Integrated Vaal river System. The problem is the Gauteng population is consistently growing — it is now 25% more than it was a decade ago. 

Another problem, says an insider in the province, is that Stats SA population data is not reliable (due to reports that the latest census data consists of estimates rather than actual counts) and the population in the province is probably larger than recorded.

What are the implications of this tight leash on Rand Water? When there is a heatwave, for instance, and residents begin filling their pools, watering their gardens and increasing their overall water usage, the reservoirs empty faster, but due to restrictions placed on it, Rand Water cannot pump more water to refill rapidly emptying reservoirs, so water levels are not where they should be. The result of this is that there is not enough pressure to distribute water to high-lying areas, resulting in outages.

“Once Rand Water pumps water into the reservoirs again, levels increase and pressure returns. It’s an underlying problem in Gauteng,” Phillips says. 

Rand Water did not respond to email and WhatsApp requests for comment. Former water MMC in the City of Johannesburg and DA councillor Nico de Jager says Gauteng is the only province where water has to be pumped upward, against the “gravitational flow”. 

Another problem is how municipalities have been treating the provision of water over the past 15 years in Gauteng.

Going back 20 years, utilities, including water and electricity, used to be central to the business of a municipality. Over time, however, this changed. Johannesburg Water, for instance, ran well in the first five years after its inception. Then politicians decided to take back certain functions such as billing of large industries. Water was no longer ring-fenced and specifically budgeted for to allow it to be prioritised. 

In many municipalities, water is now just a “technical office”, occupied by skilled engineers who know what needs to be done, however, they are not allocated the resources they need to do it.

“What you have is a situation where they only do what is crucial, naturally infrastructure is in a bad state, but it is because it is not given the priority and budgeting it deserves. Politicians would rather spend budgets on football fields and monuments which people can see, but they do not understand that the main reason for the existence of a municipality is the provision of these utilities,” says a senior official in the province who is not authorised to speak to the media. 

What suffers is all aspects of water provision. For example, water meters are meant to be changed every 10 years. The City of Cape Town had a budget of about R300m for this and did it regularly. In Gauteng municipalities, the budget for meters is far less, no other city in the province has a budget that comes close to it. The consequence is an increase in “non-revenue water” — water used but not paid for — due to faulty or broken water meters.

So begins the death spiral for the maintenance of infrastructure. Poor billing leads to low collections for utilities, leading to budget cuts to crucial areas such as water and consequently poor maintenance of pipes and crucial infrastructure, leading to leaks and water losses. Phillips says on average 33% of water in the province is lost to leaks — even before it reaches the billing stage.

While metros across Gauteng have programmes to reduce non-revenue water, none of them are well funded, or any good. 

It is understood that the National Treasury has stepped in to help metros in the province address this issue to “restore the balance” and reduce non-revenue water, which stood at an average of 49.5% across the province. In the last national “No Drop” water report by the national water department the only municipality in Gauteng that received a top score was Midvaal, with 91%, and Ekurhuleni, with 80%. Four other municipalities registered an average score, two fared poorly and one municipality in the province was at a critical level.  

To avoid water cuts between now and 2028, municipalities need to reduce leaks and campaign for their customers to use water sparingly — a huge campaign is set to be rolled out provincially, driven by the national department and the World Bank, to shift the mindset of Gauteng residents to change their water usage habits. 

This is crucial: Gauteng residents use up to 253l of water per person per day, compared with the international average of 175l per day.  

“South Africans tend to want the government to solve problems and, yes, I know in this case, the government is to blame, but it is too late to cry over spilt milk, it won’t solve the problem,” says Phillips.

“What happens next is in the hands of the public. Even moderately reducing water consumption by each household would make a difference.”

Municipalities are at the heart of a potential turnaround, but the sphere of government is complex, given shifting political dynamics due to coalitions. Intense political competition and shifts in municipal leadership lead to a lack of trust among residents, which implies they will not readily comply with restrictions. Insiders say it will make solving the water security crisis in Gauteng that much harder.  

Mamabolo does not want to cause panic by calling it a crisis, but says if residents, businesses, municipalities and the government “do nothing”, then “we will get to crisis levels”.

His department met the construction industry this week, giving them 14 days to come up with a plan to save water in their sector. He was aghast that the sector mixes concrete for construction using tap water. 

While supply will be tight until 2028, Mamabolo says SA is an arid country so using water sparingly should become a way of life for Gauteng until 2028 and beyond. He urged residents to begin water harvesting and water recycling, particularly during the upcoming hot rainy season. 

As water outages plague many areas of the province, Gauteng residents and businesses have to shift their thinking about water usage. Failing to do so could prove catastrophic for future generations, particularly in the event of a drought.

We have been warned.