South Africa’s richest province running out of water

Demand for water in Gauteng has skyrocketed in recent years as the province’s population has grown, resulting in South Africa’s economic hub running out of water. 

“There is not enough water in Gauteng. The water demand has increased a lot in recent years due to population and economic growth,” the director-general of the Department of Water and Sanitation, Dr Sean Phillips, said. 

Phillips explained to Newzroom Afrika that the province is naturally a water-scarce area and does not have enough fresh water sources to meet its needs. 

This has resulted in the province historically looking elsewhere for water that is then pumped into Gauteng to meet demand. 

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project is Gauteng’s most important water source, contributing significant fresh water to the Vaal River System. 

Phase One of this project met Gauteng’s need for additional water after being completed in 2004. 

However, Phillips said it was soon clear that another phase would have to be built to meet increased demand in Gauteng. As such, feasibility studies for Phase Two began in 2005 and were completed by 2008. 

Phase Two was set to meet Gauteng’s water demand for decades to come and buy the province time to implement other methods to reduce the province’s long-term water demand. 

Projected to cost approximately R7.3 billion and deliver water by January 2020, Phase Two has been beset by delays and cost overruns. 

Now running nine years late, the project is only set to contribute additional freshwater to the Vaal River System by 2028. 

As Phillips explained, there is now simply not enough water in the Vaal River System to allow Rand Water to increase the amount it extracts from it to supply Gauteng. 

This means the province has effectively used up all of its available water sources, resulting in reduced demand and fixing leaks, which are the only solutions available. 

Phillips urged residents in Gauteng to reduce their water usage to help authorities manage the province’s supply-demand imbalance. 

“We are going to have to do things differently in Gauteng. We are going to have to change our behaviour and use water more sparingly,” he said. 

The average consumption in Gauteng is 279 litres per capita per day, which is far higher than the global average of 173 litres per capita per day. 

“It is unsustainable for residents in Gauteng to be using so much water. There are some residents who use water excessively and do not use it sparingly. They have to change their behaviour.” 

However, reduced usage will not be enough as around 49% of all water in Gauteng is classified as non-revenue water. 

This means it is either lost through leakages before reaching the end-user or to illegal connections along the way. 

Phillips explained that this creates a negative spiral as municipalities then do not have enough water to maintain their water systems, resulting in further losses to leakages and a sharper decline in revenue. 

Authorities can also artificially reduce demand by implementing water-shedding, whereby supply to certain areas is cut off on a rotating basis. 

“Water-shedding cannot work – planned or unplanned – as water systems are designed to be wet and are not designed to be turned on and off,” the director at Water Ledger, Benoit Le Roy, explained. 

This could have disastrous consequences as by shutting off reservoirs,  air pockets can be created in downstream infrastructure. These pockets can either block the flow of water or burst pipes, exacerbating the problem. 

Apart from further damage to water infrastructure, water-shedding could also crush economic activity and result in social unrest.