Rand Water has refuted reports that its system has crashed and says it has been supplying Gauteng municipalities with sufficient water. The Bulk supplier briefed the media on Friday in Glenvista, south of Johannesburg, about water concerns in the province.
Rand Water says it receives water mainly from the Vaal River — which has filtered down through a number of channels from the Lesotho Mountains. Its responsibility is to ensure its purified and supply bulk water mainly to Gauteng and surrounding provinces.
With all the water restrictions in recent days and discouraged residents, Rand Water CEO, Thabo Mosai, insists there was no water crash on their side as they have been giving municipalities sufficient water, pumping at maximum capacity.
“We are pumping at the max. there is no indication that we are moving to Day Zero. From no indication from our side, we are pumping at maximum capacity, 5 000ml of water per day to 17/18 million people. The reservoirs are picking up, the dams are full. The word day zero does not even exist in our vocab. We are meeting the peak demands, we are pushing more water into the system, and we have to make sure where we need to remedy some water management practices, we have to help those in the high-lying areas.”
Somehow the water is not reaching parts of the Johannesburg residents.
Opening the tap for clean running water is something these Coronation residents have not been privileged for some time now. This resident says they have not had running water for months now.
“It’s been 4 months now. It’s been off in Cori, two weeks before other places. It’s very frustrating I won’t lie and I have been paying R2200 rent every month and the water has been going on and off on and off. It’s very difficult, there is a friend of mine in Newclare, and they have water so I have to walk down to get water. It’s very difficult; I’m so frustrated I want to move out of Cori. I don’t understand what is so difficult.”
In neighbouring Crosby, there are similar frustrations. “It’s been here in Crosby with no water, next to coronation secondary high. We are not coping and the school started coming out at 11 o’clock.”
While pumping at maximum capacity into reservoirs, Rand Water’s Sipho Mosai says water consumption continues to be high. He says Tshwane and Ekurhuleni remain stable, but Johannesburg remains a challenge specifically the Commando reservoir.
“From last week we are pumping more into Eikenhof. Our reservoirs are picking up, their reservoirs are picking up. So I was a little bit surprised that there are areas without water. So we are working with Joburg Water to see what is it we can use from our side to see if we can load shift. It may be the levels but from our side, the reservoirs are picking up.”
Johannesburg Water says water storage has been inconsistent particularly for the Commando system. Mosai also cited power cuts as a major issue at their purification water works.
“We have quite a number of power trips in our purification works. We have been exempted from load shedding so we have not been getting good-quality of power. So if we have a power trip, they do have an impact because from Vereeniging we pump to Eikenhof. Eikenhof supplies joburg water. So we have a power outage which means that Eikenhof is going to struggle. We are in high peak demand and when the reservoirs are low, reservoirs keep water at 80/90% to cushion us.”
Meanwhile, he has urged all residents to use water sparingly, and practice sound water conservation methods, in order to avoid water restrictions.
