Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu says his department is in talks with Rand Water over water shortage issues in Gauteng.
Power supply failures, due to continuous rolling blackouts, have resulted in Rand Water experiencing severe shortages at their main reservoirs over the past few days.
The water entity says they have started stabilising pumping at maximum capacity but full recovery will be dependent on less-frequent power failures.
Mchunu explains, “With regards to Gauteng metros, we are having engagements with Rand Water because the recent heat didn’t do us a favour but at least that was short lived. We were relieved when it started raining. But, the main challenge is that of load shedding which inhibits the system.”
The audio below is reporting more on the story:
Meanwhile, residents of Johannesburg who are affected by water cuts say it is negatively affecting them and inconveniencing their daily lives.
This is what some residents of Johannesburg have to say.
“These water cuts are a big inconvenience especially because we are not being told when the water is being cut. And we wake up and there’s no water so it becomes a huge inconvenience,” says a resident.
Another Joburg adds, “This makes life very hard because this is a necessity and it doesn’t make life hard for just one individual; it makes life hard for the whole household. Then you have to go get water and get buckets and we are paying for water and we don’t get it and we’re paying for electricity and we don’t have electricity most of the time.”
