Johannesburg Water urges residents to reduce water consumption after dramatic increase

1 November 2019

Recently, as residents of Johannesburg have been exposed to heatwaves and late rainfall, Johannesburg Water has seen an increase in water usage at an alarming rate.

This is of serious concern and impacts on our capacity to supply water at an optimum level.

Over the past couple of years, our demand was on average 1 553 Ml/day. This is not ideal, but can be sustained.

However, a drastic increase to 1 684 Ml/day has recently been recorded likely due to heatwaves and late rainfall. This is well over our licensed allocation as well as the historical water demand.

This is simply not sustainable and will cause water supply interruptions.

Mainly due to high demand and consumption, Rand Water, our bulk water supplier, has implemented Stage 2 water supply restrictions in the City of Johannesburg.

The City’s licensed water allocation is 1 322 Ml/day from Rand Water.

Areas identified with high water demand includes Midrand, Johannesburg Central and South, Soweto, Orange Farm, Ennerdale, and Lenasia. Although not the highest consumers, residents in areas like Sandton, Roodepoort, and Randburg should also reduce their demand to help overall demand reduction and create stability in the bulk supply system.

Johannesburg Water is regulating reservoirs at the rate of 20% to 40% in line with restrictions by Rand Water. We need all hands on deck to ensure that we reduce consumption in order to protect the infrastructure.

Furthermore, Johannesburg Water has placed a high emphasis on sustainable service delivery by investing in marginal areas with22 project valued at R99.6 million implemented in Orange Farm, Diepsloot, Ivory Park, Soweto, and Ennerdale.

These key service delivery programmes help to ensure reliable and quality services to all residents, including marginalised areas.

The actions being implemented in these programmes include:

- Over 120km of water pipes replaced in the previous financial year against an annual target of 70km;

- Water Demand Management projects commenced in Soweto and Orange Farm with just under 2km of old reticulation mains being replaced to date. This will be followed by a project of fixing on-property leaks commencing in January 2020; and,

- Advanced Pressure Management, where 37 stations will be retrofitted with smart PRV controllers commencing in January 2020.

In conclusion, I would like to remind City of Johannesburg residents that level 1 water restrictions are still in place and urge all to reduce their water consumption patterns by following the following simple steps:

- Reduce the frequency of garden irrigation drastically especially now that the system is still vulnerable;

- Refrain from garden irrigation during the day (6 am to 6pm) as this is a bylaw contravention; and,  

- Refrain from hosing down paved areas.  

Issued by Nico de Jager, MMC for the Environment and Infrastructure Services Department, City of Johannesburg, 1 November 2019