Watershedding required to normalise Gauteng water supply

25 September 2014

Gauteng municipalities are not effectively managing water demand so that areas without water can have their supply restored.

This is one of the reasons why it is taking so long to restore water to suburbs that has been left without water for more than a week. High lying areas are worst affected.

A number of areas in Gauteng have been left without water or with low pressure. This has been the result of recent water outages caused by electricity interruptions at Rand Water pump stations.

Although pump stations have resumed operation, water supply cannot keep up with demand. Joburg Water and Ekurhuleni municipality is not helping the situation with their poor water management strategies.

In order to restore water it has become necessary for these municipalities to properly manage water supply, so that water pressure in the worst affected areas can be normalised.

This requires water to be re-routed from full reservoirs to affected reservoirs, which will assist to restore water pressure.

As a consequence certain areas will be without water for a couple of hours but will allow for the entire system to recover.

However, neither Ekurhuleni nor Joburg has such plans in place which means water supply restoration will take longer than it should.

The DA has called on Gauteng Premier David Makhura to launch a commission of enquiry into the water crisis and the water demand management strategies of municipalities in Gauteng should form part of this inquiry.

Statement issued by Fred Nel MPL, DA Shadow MEC of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, September 25 2014

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