Pretoria - Following the announcement by water utility Rand Water that its levels had dipped to a worrying 30%, immediate water restrictions have started affecting parts of Tshwane and have led to water shortages.
Daryl Johnston, the Utilities and Regional Operations MMC announced that concerns of water shortages hitting the capital city had come to fruition after Rand Water announced that it was forced to implement water restrictions with immediate effect.
Johnston said the restrictions would be implemented on several high-consuming meters in the municipality.
Through this, he said the water utility hoped it would ensure that the overall reservoir storage capacity would be restored to normal operating levels of at least 60%.
"The current Rand Water system capacity has dropped from 60% to around 30%, which is very serious, and in fact critical. If the situation does not change, the bulk water supply system of Rand Water will continue to drop and eventually collapse."
As of Monday, Johnston said areas such as Waterkloof Ridge, parts of Monument Park, Grootfontein as well as Block L, M, K, LKK and H in Soshanguve had been hit with water shortages.
For the Soshanguve area in particular Johnston said that the high consumption rate did not allow pumping into the tower due to low reservoir levels.
Starting off last week the City and Rand Water pleaded with residents to use water sparingly as they cited that consumption by the Tshwane municipality alongside other municipalities had resulted in a decline in its overall reservoir capacity.
They further indicated that this issue had been further exacerbated by the recent heatwave, with a lack of rainfall and load shedding not doing much to assist the situation.
According to the municipality, the pumping hours had been reduced due to a lack of power supply to water treatment plants during load shedding.
Pretoria News