Joburg water woes persist as metro scrambles to fix infrastructure

JOHANNESBURG - Joburg's water woes continue to deepen as the metro has been forced to implement water restrictions from Thursday.

Almost half of all the water procured by Joburg from Rand Water is lost due to illegal connections, leaks and infrastructure issues.

On Monday, Water and Sanitation minister, Pemmy Majodina, cast the blame squarely on municipalities for their lack of maintenance and foresight in the province.

Gauteng finds itself amid a brewing water crisis.

Dam levels are dropping drastically and Rand Water has reached its limit of the amount of water it can extract from the integrated Vaal River system to assist municipalities.

But the main issue, according to Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, is the non-revenue of 48% of water the city receives from Rand Water.

"If everyone that is using water is paying for water our challenges will be minimal but if there are people who are using water and they are not paying for it, it creates serious problems," said Lesufi.

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He said there are plans to address this using an indigent register.

"So we want to shield the poor, we are working on introducing on what we call an indigent register that is linked to all municipalities, so that those that are genuinely unemployed and those that genuinely can’t afford, we can be in a position to give them services," Lesufi said.

Joburg residents will have their water throttled indefinitely from Thursday until reservoir levels in the city stabilise.

Meanwhile, the City of Joburg will look to adjust its budget and tweak its funding model to address the water issues.

Joburg Mayor Dada Morero said that almost 48% of the water the city procures is lost.

"Our percentage is basically sitting at 40% and above in terms of our losses both as a result of illegal connections, leaking pipes and so on," he said.

Morero added that non-revenue collection is impeding the city's ability to maintain infrastructure.