South Africa’s richest city collapsing in front of everyone’s eyes

South Africa’s richest province is facing a major water crisis and is on the edge of its own ‘Day Zero’ in the coming months. 

What is unique about Johannesburg’s challenges is that they are largely self-inflicted, with municipal mismanagement exacerbating the country’s water scarcity. 

The strong population growth in Johannesburg compounds the mismanagement of water infrastructure, increasing demand at a time when supply has remained flat. 

The city’s water crisis has been looming for years, with little maintenance on water infrastructure and minimal planning to ensure adequate supply for a growing population. 

Municipal officials, representatives from Rand Water, and Minister Pemmy Majodina have been clear that the root cause of Joburg’s water crisis is the collapse of its infrastructure. 

Majodina has repeatedly explained that there is enough water in the province’s dams and that Rand Water is drawing enough water from the Vaal River System. 

Rand Water is already abstracting the maximum amount of water it can from the Vaal River System under the licence granted to it by the Water and Sanitation Department. 

“Rand Water is, therefore, not able to supply any more water to the municipalities of Gauteng. The water being abstracted is enough to meet demand,” Majodina said. 

The main issue facing Gauteng, and particularly Johannesburg, is getting the water from the bulk supplier, Rand Water, to the end user. 

This has proven difficult for Johannesburg as its water infrastructure has deteriorated to the point where nearly half of all water is lost before it reaches the end user. 

“What we are going through in Gauteng is self-inflicted pain by municipalities, where they did not do what is necessary to adequately maintain their infrastructure,” Majodina said. 

The water lost on the way from Rand Water to the end user is referred to as ‘non-revenue water’ as the city cannot bill for its use. This water is typically lost because of leaking pipes and other faulty infrastructure. 

Since 2013, non-revenue water has increased from 35% to 46.1%. Not all non-revenue water is water lost to leaks – this is just 24.1% of it. 

Unbilled authorised consumption is 12.7%. This is water supplied to informal environments and used for network maintenance. The rest, 9.4%, is ‘commercial losses’, described as illegal connections and meters.

This is shown in the graph below, courtesy of The Outlier.

According to public updates by Joburg Water in the past two months, Joburg Water has 129 reservoirs and water towers, with the water level in at least 26 of them being very low, critically low or empty. 

The water supply to more than 440 suburbs was affected as a result. This is not the worst of the news. 

At a meeting last month of officials from the national government, Gauteng, and Joburg Water, it was revealed just how poorly maintained the province’s water infrastructure is. 

As part of efforts to tackle the crisis of water leakages and infrastructure collapse, 12,100 kilometres of pipelines have been surveyed in Johannesburg. This revealed the below. 

• 2,396 burst pipes 
• 6,727 leaking meters 
• 442 leaking valves 
• 259 leaking fire hydrants

These issues have been flagged and are being repaired, which could save the city 9.46 billion litres of water annually. 

More concerningly, however, is that of the city’s 80 reservoirs, around 42 are leaking, and only 11 are being repaired. 

Joburg Mayor Dada Morero said the city is hard at work in this regard and is busy constructing a new reservoir in Brixton that should come online early next year to ease constraints in surrounding areas. 

Morero said the city is working to fix major leaks at its reservoirs and pumping stations but explained that it is financially limited in what it can do. 

“We need R1 billion just to deal with our reservoirs, with around 45 needing to be refurbished as they are leaking,” he said. 

This cost does not include the overhaul needed at the city’s pumping stations or improvements to its pipe network. Morero said the city is also busy replacing 685 pressure valves. 

“We are currently budgeting around R1 billion to fix leaks, but we need much more, and we do not have the budget for it.”

There is also a longer-term problem with Gauteng – its water supply is set to run out in the coming years. 

Dr Sean Phillips, Director-General of the Department of Water and Sanitation, previously highlighted that Gauteng lacks sufficient local water sources to meet its growing needs.

As a result, the province has historically relied on importing water from other regions to meet demand. A key source is the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which plays a crucial role in supplying fresh water to the Vaal River System.

Phase One of this project, completed in 2004, addressed Gauteng’s need for additional water at the time. However, it soon became evident that a second phase would be necessary to keep up with the province’s increasing demand. Feasibility studies for Phase Two began in 2005 and were completed by 2008.

Phase Two was designed to secure Gauteng’s water supply for decades while providing time to implement long-term strategies to reduce water consumption.

Initially estimated to cost R7.3 billion and scheduled for completion by January 2020, the project has faced significant delays and cost overruns.

Now nine years behind schedule, Phase Two is expected to supply additional water to the Vaal River System only by 2028.

In the meantime, Phillips explained that the Vaal River System can no longer meet the province’s growing needs, leaving Gauteng without sufficient water resources to expand its supply through Rand Water.

The province has effectively exhausted all its available water sources.