Reduce water demand, Minister urges Jozi residents

13 November 2015

 

The demand for water in Johannesburg needed to be decreased to avoid water cuts, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan said at a media briefing in Johannesburg on Thursday November 12.

 

Minister Gordhan, Johannesburg Executive Mayor Councillor Parks Tau, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Environment and Infrastructure Services Councillor Matshidiso Mfikoe, City Manager Trevor Fowler and Johannesburg Water Managing Director Lungile Dlamini addressed the media to clarify the status of the city’s water supply and the reasons behind the recent water shortages in some suburbs.

 

“The reality is that the country is currently in the wraps of a drought and there are parts of the country that are being extremely hard-hit. In Johannesburg the drought and issues experienced so far have not been connected.

“Johannesburg’s water issues are as a result of an extraordinarily high demand, which is exacerbated by bad habits, system leaks and other issues,” said Minister Gordhan.

 

He described the situation in the city as a problem and not a crisis. “A crisis is a situation that is unmanageable,” he said. Suburbs in Johannesburg this week experienced water outages and shortages as a result of an electrical fault in Eikenhof, which affected the ability to pump water to high-lying areas, including Auckland Park, Crosby and Brixton in Region B; and parts of Zakariyya Park in Region G.

 

Mayor Tau said cuts to the water supply in Sandton on Wednesday night were made as an emergency measure to enable the system to replenish itself. He added that the theft of three bowsers dispensed to alleviate the need for water had further exacerbated the situation.

 

“It is our priority as the City of Johannesburg to limit the extent to which the pressure of the water supply affects residents. We have experienced challenges and we urge residents to help contribute to a collective solution by making a reduction in the demand for water to enable the system to replenish itself. I urge residents to please limit the amount of water they use in gardening. Over 46% of household water supply in Johannesburg is used for gardening and the fact we have had a lack of rain has escalated this. Please limit refilling swimming pools and using excessive water,” said Mayor Tau.

 

He added that the City’s commitment to replacing 900km of water piping by 2017 had seen a reduction of unaccounted for water from 31% to 23%. Dlamini said to date 41km of piping had been replaced and this had resulted in the 8% decrease in unaccounted for water.

 

MMC Mfikoe said Joburg Water was sufficiently capacitated and was increasing its water storage capacity by building two reservoirs in Orange Farm and Diepsloot.

She said though Johannesburg Water had sufficient water in storage, it remained a collective responsibility to save water.

 

“We need to all come together and work as a community. Joburg Water has minimised its response time to limit water loss. As the City we commit to ourselves to improving our communication with the community to ensure information on the current water status is available,” said MMC Mfikoe.