Rand Water CEO lays the blame for Gauteng’s water shortages

Rand Water CEO Sipho Mosai blames the ongoing water shortage in Gauteng on several factors – such as load shedding and climate change – but points to wasteful residential consumption as the main culprit.

Gauteng’s main metros are currently facing major water supply issues, with households going without water for weeks.

Rand Water is a bulk supplier of drinking water. It buys water from the department of water and sanitation, which comes from the Vaal dam integrated system. It then purifies it before pumping it to various water reservoirs across four provinces – including all the municipalities in Gauteng.

In a briefing this past week, Mosai addressed the root causes of the water supply issues in Gauteng, saying that the problem is not a water shortage, per se, but rather the failings within the value chain and the need to conserve water amid high consumption and climate change.

He said that the first issue facing water supply is load shedding, which results in pumping stations not being able to pump water – meaning reservoirs cannot recover fast enough.

“After the purification process, we pump it to the relevant municipalities. We have plenty of engine rooms to do the job, but electricity is extremely important for us, and without it, we can’t pump water,” he said.

Rand Water CEO Sipho Mosai

However, the main contributor to the lack of water supply in Gauteng is residents’ modes of consumption – such as using water for non-drinking purposes like watering lawns.

According to Rand Water, Joburg is one of the highest water consumers in the world, currently sitting at 300 litres per capita per day on average, while the world average is 173 litres.

Mosai said that while this consumption was compounded by the heatwave experienced at the beginning of October – which increased water demand – the real issue is how the water is used.

He explained that many residents in Gauteng use a lot of precious water to water their gardens, which often comprise invasive plant species that require a large amount of water.

He said that 49% of the water that reaches the consumer goes into the garden, and this wasteful water usage and the overall high consumption rate are to blame for the water shortage.

“This high usage of water in the low-lying areas drops the water levels in the reservoirs and the pressure, meaning high-lying areas experience a water shortage. All municipalities in Gauteng have water, but it’s the high-lying areas that don’t have water,” he said.

“We [Rand Water] are simply supplying more water than is budgeted. Water demand is beyond the volumes we should be supplying,” he said.

“We as South Africans need to go suburb by suburb and understand where the consumption is and discourage the use of drinking water for non-drinking purposes, such as watering our lawns,” he added.

One key issue Rand Water failed to address

UNISA’s integrated water resource management specialist, Anja Du Plessis, said that load-leading and the heatwave have indeed contributed to the water supply crisis and higher consumption rates – but it’s unfair to put the blame solely on the consumer.

She said that ailing infrastructure and a lack of maintenance significantly contribute to Gauteng’s water loss.

“Rand Water says that Gauteng is using 300 litres per person per day, but they fail to include the fact that 41% of that water is lost before it even gets to the consumer,” she said.

She added that decaying infrastructure is a significant issue which hasn’t been addressed for the past two decades. Warnings have been given by several researchers since 2002, saying that we need to give our water infrastructure the proper attention and move away from just putting down new pipes.

Du Plessis said that while putting down new pipes is suitable for rural areas in terms of water access, it doesn’t help in the cities where we do not maintain what we already have.

Read: Tshwane’s R75 million plan to stop ‘water shedding’ – here are the areas that will get upgraded