Water shortages are persisting in parts of Gauteng. Johannesburg Water has assured Gauteng residents that it’s attending to the problem.
The bulk supplier has attributed the water shortages to six power outages at some of its reservoirs.
Joburg continues to urge citizens to use water sparingly:
Meanwhile, Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero says the region’s ageing water treatment infrastructure needs extensive renovations.
He was speaking during a media briefing with City Power and Johannesburg Water on Tuesday.
“This is not really about water shortage. It’s really about the inability to pump the water, as a result of the structures not responding either through power shortages, or some of the glitches that could have been there. But, there is sufficient water.”
Factors leading to higher water consumption
The Department’s Director General Dr Sean Phillips says various factors occurred at the same time coincidentally, leading to water supply challenges.
“We’ve had very severe load shedding and that has made it difficult to pump sufficient water into the reservoirs, secondly there’s been this heat wave, which has resulted in the spike in demand, particularly by people using more water to water their gardens, and their grass; and thirdly, normally it would have started raining and normally when it starts raining, people switch off their sprinkler systems. So, all of these factors occurred at the same time, resulting in a situation where there’s insufficient water in the reservoirs.”
