Johannesburg - Rand Water is racing against time to try and resolve the water crisis in Gauteng before dams run dry. The department has set in motion plans to invest heavily in infrastructure development to the tune of R5 billion in a bid to avoid day zero.
The province has been hit by water shedding on top of the current load shedding crisis. Certain areas in the province have been struggling to access a steady flow of the precious liquid for the past three weeks.
Many have been forced to dip into their pockets and buy water to quench their thirsts and be able to bathe. This is despite the current tough economic climate that has seen the prices of basic goods skyrocketing.
Studies show that the human body can only survive without water for three days. The body starts to shut down after three to five days without water.
On average, each person in the country uses at least 233 litres of water per capita per day, as compared to our international counterparts, who use 173 litres.
Zooming in on provinces: on average, one person in Gauteng uses 305 litres of water per capita per day, with the Northern Cape having the second-highest water usage at 238 litres per person.
This high water usage explains why it is vital to have efficient water management because, without it, there would likely be more competition for water among enterprises and an acceleration of all forms of water crises.
One of the country’s water utilities, Rand Water, which supplies bulk water to at least 18 municipalities, 49 mines and 959 industries and direct consumers, is concerned about the Gauteng dam level decrease. In the province, three municipalities have been outed for having the highest water consumption rate.
The City of Johannesburg takes up to a least 35% of the water supply from Rand Water. In comparison, Erkhuruleni takes 24%, the City of Tshwane 15% while Emfuleni municipality takes the least, with 6%.
Last Friday, the water supplier announced that it had put in place a water supply reduction that would affect metropolitans in the province to try and mitigate the decline in dam water levels.
Rand Water CEO Sipho Mosai said as far as water cuts were concerned, the water utility didn’t dictate which area within a municipality should have its water cut, nor does it determine the duration of the cut.
The municipalities determine their water cuts. However, Rand Water has set a water target that the metro needs to save in a day.
“We are working with the various municipalities on how we can use water efficiently. We have the City of Joburg to reduce by 1 355, Erkhuruleni by 1 021 and City of Tshwane by 666 mega litres of water per day,” Mosai said.
He highlighted that the water company, in South Africa, particularly the Gauteng province gets its water from Lesotho as the country does not have sufficient water to sustain itself.
To address the water shortage problems, Mosai said the utility had measures in place to help alleviate the problem. He said there was a plan to address the decay of infrastructure.
“We are putting infrastructure treatment into place. Rand Water will be spending at least R28 billion to upgrade our infrastructure in the next five years. Currently, we are building system 5A (Zuikerbosch) in Vereeniging, which will give us an additional 600 mega-litres of water in the next year.
“This plant is not only meant to provide water not for only now, tomorrow but into the future, which will be sufficient for the number of consumers we have,” said Mosai.
He maintained that the drop in dam level was due to consumers using drinking water for non-drinking purposes, particularly during the high peak demand period.
The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) noted a decrease in average dam levels. On October 6, the country's reservoirs had a total national storage capacity of 89.5%, which was a slight decrease from the weeks before 89.7%, but still a significant improvement over the 78.6% in the previous year.