The South African Water Chamber (SAWC) says ordinary citizens and consumers are not to blame for the country’s water woes.
Power supply failures, due to continuous rolling blackouts, have resulted in Rand Water experiencing severe shortages at their main reservoirs.
The water entity says they have started stabilising pumping at maximum capacity, but full recovery will be dependent on less-frequent power failures.
SAWC’s CEO Benoȋt Le Roy says, “So, the issue has nothing to do with the user or the consumer because most don’t have water at the moment. For every 100 litres coming into JHB from Rand Water, 40-45 litres are not getting to the consumers. It is lost in the municipal system that was supposed to be replaced about 20-30 years ago and it was not maintained. So, Rand Water can pump as much as it wants but it will not fill up the buckets when there is high demand and load shedding.”
SAWC CEO Benoit Le Roy discuss how to improve water infrastructure:
