Gauteng beefs up water crisis

4 Nov 2016

Efforts to encourage or force residents to reduce water consumption in Gauteng are failing.

As a result, the province said it was beefing up its crisis management capacity and liaising with municipalities to ensure the availability of water at established crisis points.

The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs announced this week it was establishing a joint operations centre for the provinces and would broaden the scope of technical committees established in August to reduce pressure on dams.

"Now that not much progress has been made in reducing consumption, we will bring more expertise in terms of water experts and disaster management to establish a more comprehensive team," departmental spokesman Mogomotsi Mogodiri said on Wednesday, 2 November.

Since the Department of Water and Sanitation gazetted a 15% reduction in water consumption, a provincial task team has been meeting to monitor the restrictions and dam levels.

The Vaal River system's water levels stood at 27.5% as of Tuesday and were expected to continue to drop at 0.8% per week. Ideally, the ministry wants to keep levels above 25% until the end of the year.

A drop below 25% would prompt additional restrictions and supply disruptions. It is understood disruptions were unlikely to necessitate large-scale water tanker deliveries.

A weekend heat wave left some areas of Johannesburg without water as pressure was put on reservoirs. But Johannesburg Water on Wednesday described the supply as stable.

Spokeswoman Tidimalo Chuene said the shortages at reservoirs were due to demand outstripping supply. "The only way we can deal with it is by people reducing consumption."

Johannesburg Water reported that for the last week of October, the city saved 7% out of the 15% water reduction target.

Source: Business Day

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