South Africa’s richest city is running out of water

The bulk water supplier to Johannesburg and other municipalities in South Africa explained that there is no more bulk water to supply, with water shortages across the city due to distribution failures.

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) explained that water shortages in Johannesburg and other parts of the country result from a lack of maintenance and upgrades to municipal distribution infrastructure, which leads to leaks.

This was revealed in a recent presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation, where the DWS and bulk supplier Rand Water outlined the country’s water issues.

Rand Water supplies bulk water to municipalities in Gauteng, and parts of Mpumalanga, the Free State, and the North West.

In his presentation, Rand Water CEO Sipho Mosai explained that Rand Water currently supplies the maximum allowable volumes of water.

However, the demand for water in the City of Johannesburg continues to increase and remains beyond what the bulk supplier can supply.

Mosai’s comments come as Johannesburg is experiencing severe water shortages, with parts of the city having gone without water for weeks.

Concerns over this situation sparked protests in numerous Joburg suburbs, leading to increased calls for accountability from players in the water supply and distribution chains.

The DWS explained in its presentation that the underlying cause of these water shortages is that the demand for treated water from Rand Water sometimes exceeds the available supply.

“The demand-supply relationship for treated water in Gauteng is very tight, and this makes the system vulnerable to disruptions caused by heavy load shedding, electro-mechanical breakdowns or theft of cables, and intensive maintenance,” the department explained.

“When such disruptions occur, it takes a very long time for the water levels in the reservoirs to recover, because water is going out of the reservoirs almost as fast as it is entering the reservoirs.”

However, the DWS emphasised that Rand Water is supplying sufficient water to Gauteng municipalities to meet their needs.

Therefore, the problem that leaves Joburg residents’ taps dry lies with the distribution of this water.

The department explained that if Gauteng municipalities were to reduce leaks in their distribution systems and invest more in this infrastructure, water shortages would become far less frequent.

The supply of water from Rand Water against the allowed limits can be seen in the graph below

Water down the drain

Many of South Africa’s water shortages can be explained by the high amount of non-revenue water seen across the country’s municipalities.

Non-revenue water refers to the difference between the amount of water injected into the water supply system and the actual amount of water billed to customers.

Water can be “lost” throughout the distribution chain through physical losses like leaks or water that is supplied but not billed due to revenue collection weaknesses and illegal connections.

The DWS revealed in its presentation that the average non-revenue water for Gauteng municipalities stands at 49% and at 45% for the City of Johannesburg.

Physical losses through issues like leaks in Johannesburg and Gauteng are, on average, around 33%.

“This means that the municipalities are literally throwing away a third of the water they obtain from Rand Water,” the department said.

The DWS suggested that, to reduce the leaks, municipalities must –

• Properly resource and improve the performance of their leak repair teams to allow for a quick turnaround time for fixing leaks
• Replace old, leaking pipes
• Implement pressure management programmes, including the installation of pressure reduction valves

The department added that the municipalities need to invest in their distribution infrastructure, including storage and pumping capacity.

This will make their distribution systems more resilient and less prone to water supply disruptions.

“Gauteng municipalities have been neglecting investment in their distribution infrastructure for decades,” the DWS said.

“While the demand on the municipal distribution systems has grown markedly, the systems have not been adequately upgraded to cater for the increased demand.”

The department revealed that 44 reservoirs in the City of Johannesburg are old, leaking and require refurbishment.

“For example, in addition to refurbishing the old leaking reservoirs, the City should have invested in additional reservoir capacity and additional related pumping capacity,” it said.

“The problem of water not reaching high-lying areas could have been addressed if the City had installed additional storage and pumping capacity.”