Gauteng’s water crisis is the result of “self-inflicted pain” that can be eliminated with political will and management, water & sanitation minister Pemmy Majodina said on Tuesday.
Addressing parliament’s portfolio committee on water and sanitation, Majodina said municipalities in the province “don’t want to co-operate” in dealing with the crisis.
The committee summoned Majodina and Rand Water to get a better understanding of the situation in Gauteng.
After numerous meetings and warnings that taps in the province were running dry the province was still not doing the “right thing”, Majodina said.
Leaks, mostly a result of ageing and neglected municipal infrastructure, and illegal connections across municipalities, have resulted in as much 49% of the water supplied to the province either going to waste or not being paid for — which is referred to as non-revenue water.
Rand Water, the bulk supplier to most of the province, has non-revenue water levels of 4% and 5%, in line with national water department limits.
From Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni to Tshwane, dozens of suburbs across the province are experiencing severe water shortages daily due demand far exceeding supply, mostly as a result of leaks and wastage.
There are limits to what Rand Water can extract from the Vaal River system, due to a nine-year delay to phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, as Business Day reported last month.
Unfortunately chair, we have to be honest, there is no change in terms of Gauteng doing the right thing.
— Water & sanitation minister Pemmy Majodina
“At present what is happening in Gauteng is not because of drought. The peak demand for water ... in Gauteng is caused by the fact that Gauteng is using more water,” Majodina said.
“The leakages in Gauteng, the illegal connections that are not disconnected in Gauteng, have caused Gauteng to use more water than it’s supposed to.
“We said there is a lot of non-revenue water. We met with all municipalities of Gauteng, the premier, as well as the Cogta [department of co-operative governance & traditional affairs] in Gauteng to alert them that soon Gauteng will be running out of water.
“We (the department) met for the second time, we started restrictions on September 18, we met more than three times to check if there is a change. Unfortunately chair, we have to be honest, there is no change in terms of Gauteng doing the right thing.”
Majodina’s comments come after Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi took to social media to distance the provincial government from the crisis, saying water was the responsibility of Rand Water and municipalities.
“Our last meeting was on Monday October 14. We gave them four doable things, close the leaks, this is doable, it can be done in 72 hours. The second [is to] disconnect illegal connections that’s doable. We said bill people correctly, that’s doable. We said focus on your reservoirs ... Again, Gauteng is not affected by drought,” Majodina said.
Rand Water’s board and senior management told the portfolio committee it has had more than 46 meetings with leadership at all levels in the province, to no avail.
Rand Water chair Ramateu Monyokolo said municipalities did not want to “own the challenges” faced, “even if the fault is theirs”.
He told the committee municipalities had to take responsibility for leaks — when they did, the turnaround made a visible difference. For instance, he said, the City of Tshwane began “walking their lines” to identify leaks and doing that helped it deal with non-revenue water. As a result, Tshwane was the only municipality in the past month to pay its bill.
Rand Water CEO Sipho Mosai said the leaks led to “phantom demand” for the resource.
The problem for Rand Water was that it was allowed to extract only an allotted volume of water from the Vaal River System. It therefore could not give Gauteng municipalities more water than it was allowed to extract, he said.
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