Johannesburg - Water utility Rand Water made revelations about how it is struggling to meet demand in Gauteng.
This has made Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu concerned.
Areas in the province, including Johannesburg, Thokoza, Palmridge, Eden Park, Brakpan, Kempton Park, Midrand, Fourways, Kagiso, and more, have recently experienced interrupted water supply and shortages over the last few months.
Rand Water is only able to pump 4500 mega-litres of water into running taps per day.
Then the water utility attributed this, among other problems, to vandalism, which damaged metres, and ongoing load shedding.
From March 20 to 26, the country is commemorating National Water Week.
Mchunu said this is a water month, and they need to accelerate access to clean water for all, and the Constitution makes sure that people are enjoying it right.
He said the fact that they know that some municipalities in Gauteng and other parts are not able to ensure that everybody has access to water without unreliability and all of that means that there's a cause for that.
Mchunu said there is a need to address the excessive consumption of water by people in Gauteng. He said people in the province consume about 233 litres per person, which is far above the average of 173 litres per person worldwide.
"Water consumption is very high in Gauteng, and it is a concern," Mchunu said.
He said infrastructure provision is a major concern.
"Once the national department, the water utility, municipalities, and other water service authorities can incrementally upgrade their infrastructure, particularly their storage of water, and close all leaks, which are around 20 to 25% in Gauteng, we will be able to provide reliable water, and from there we can address other efficiencies ensuring the quality of the water," he said.
Mchunu warned that if the housing issue is not addressed properly, Gauteng may face a water shortage.
"But there is another impediment, which is a situation where local, provincial, and national governments are involved in the housing sector, but we haven't developed a system to allocate people properly in terms of sites except in established townships and those settlements established by the private sector; otherwise, informal settlements are expanding on a daily basis. New settlements are being set up every day without any planning.
"That means that even if we as Water and Sanitation reach higher levels of efficiency in terms of providing water, as we are doing with the kind of investment that is being done by ourselves, Rand Water, and municipalities in Gauteng in the next two years, for instance, we are just dealing with the shifting target and we will not be able to really catch up with the deficit, which is a major concern on our side," Mchunu said.
In order to address these, Mchunu said from September last year to this year, they shared the experiences with municipalities in Gauteng and how frustrating it is to them, how far it makes them always have a deficit over and above the other problems like load shedding and the heat waves and other problems that disturb the provision of water.
"Now that we have established that and we have agreed with all of them that this is quite a contributor to the challenges that we have, we then have to escalate it in local, provincial, and national government. This means we have to engage our counterparts in that sector," Mchunu said.
The Star