Rand Water supply crisis sending Gauteng into desert drought territory

24 September 2021

Gauteng is dangerously heading towards a full-blown water supply crisis, following Rand Water’s admission through a statement released yesterday that demand is overstripping supply, forcing the entity to implement stage one water curtailments and calling on consumers to change their behaviour to avoid an absolute disaster.

While Rand Water, the entity that supplies to all three of Gauteng’s metro municipalities, blames weather patterns for the poor natural supply of water, the entity still fails to acknowledge that the primary contributor to water shortages is the lack of managing and sustaining their infrastructure, to avoid leaks and other unnecessary water wastage.

Water supply challenges are being experienced across the Gauteng, especially in the metro municipalities, however, the DA-led Tshwane is the only metro raising awareness of this looming crises, while Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni sit on their hands, pretending nothing is wrong. It is only due to pressure from the DA-led Tshwane that Rand Water has come out to publicly admit there is a problem that requires intervention, but still fails to stress the real urgency of the situation.

There are several areas across Tshwane and Johannesburg experiencing water outages that rely on supply from Rand Water. For Tshwane, this includes areas such as Soshanguve, Atteridgeville, Laudium, Mnandi and parts of Centurion, whereas in Johannesburg there is a long list of affected areas such as Klipfontein View, who have not had running water for over three weeks, and the Kikuyu Lifestyle estate that is supplied by the Grand Central Resevoir, Mulbarton in Ward 23, Robertsham, South Hills, Linmeyer, sections of Midrand, Ivory Park and Buccleuh.

Rand Water and the ANC-led Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni are not taking the province’s water supply crises seriously. It is imperative that Premier David Makhura, and MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Lebogang Maile urgently lead an engagement with Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu to ensure that Rand Water is immediately reigned in so that Gauteng does not fall to drought status like the provinces of the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape are currently experiencing.

Running water is a basic human right as enshrined in our country’s constitution and its imperative that the residents of Gauteng are kept informed and forewarned in order for them to prepare to ensure that their families do not suffer in the midst of an already hot summer season. In the absence of communication from both Rand Water and the ANC government, the DA will continue to communicate with the residents of Gauteng as information becomes available.

We simply do not have the luxury of time to mess around and wait until it is too late.

Issued by Solly Msimanga, Leader of the Opposition in the Gauteng Legislature, 24 September 2021