The municipal entity responsible for providing water and sanitation in Johannesburg is considering increasing water restrictions as loss of revenue and high consumption put a strain on the city’s dilapidated water infrastructure.
Joburg Water began level 1 water restrictions across the city in September, while the city has implemented water reduction from 9pm until 5am in areas with high consumption.
This could be increased to level 2 from next month as Gauteng’s economic hub deals with 40% of its water supply going to waste through leaking pipes and illegal connections, bypassing meters.
The metro’s water woes have increased in recent weeks as its water supply systems have deteriorated because of inadequate maintenance, a lack of planning and mismanagement.
Resolving the problem has become more urgent as Joburg prepares to welcome leaders of the world’s largest economies for the Group of 20 summit, scheduled for next November.
Water supply disruptions in Gauteng, eThekwini and surrounding municipalities were not caused by drought, but by the rapid growth in demand for water in those areas and the increase in leaks stemming from municipalities underbudgeting for infrastructure maintenance.
Prof Miriam Altman of the University of Johannesburg’s School of Economics said some reforms in the water industry were under way with the aim of turning the tide.
“Some of the most critical reforms will involve centralising responsibilities so there is one point of accountability in the head of water and sanitation in the metro, where previously functions like technical, customer service/call centre, communications, revenue collection have been split,” she said.
“The revenue collection will fall under the water & sanitation department and be ring-fenced there — that means more water revenue will be used for water infrastructure and services.
“Then there is a move to strengthen technical and management capability. The Treasury is introducing performance-based contracts to link private investment in water infrastructure to performance in the water departments, as well as performance-based management contracts that will draw in private service to work with the metros,” she said.
‘Aggressive interventions’
Water utilities operations manager Logan Munsamy said: “In terms of our interventions, we’ve stepped up our game, there’s aggressive interventions that we have already started in place. Some of the initiatives are the permanent reduction of water supply to prepaid, that’s already in place. We do that typically by throttling and closing of certain high-demand areas, within that area.
“There are also scheduled water restrictions, which we have started to implement as of November 8 2024, which we have communicated quite extensively, in terms of reducing the demand. In terms of our repairs and maintenance, we have a strategy that we implemented, to improve our turnaround times to 24 hours.”
SA’s water infrastructure has deteriorated over time, underscored by acute water shortages affecting municipalities in Gauteng, Polokwane and eThekwini in KwaZulu-Natal.
The situation has led to Gauteng property owners sounding the alarm over the security of supply and distribution efficacy, with property investment company Attacq warning of the risk to its operations.
Munsamy said level 1 was “not entirely effective. We are looking at increasing that level of restriction possibly to level 2 or higher. We must understand that there are certain protocols that need to be followed because it’s highly regulated by the department of water & sanitation”.
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