Rand Water executives called an urgent meeting to explain the cause of the water shortage, separating rumours from facts.
People are phoning radio stations and claiming Rand Water owes Eskom or the municipality money for electricity, and “that is not true” says Rand Water.
Most of the rumours are not true says Rand Water, and at this stage Rand Water has “seen improvement”, but they do not want to promise people a specific date when water will be available to everyone again. Rand Water is still working on various scenarios before they will be able to announce an exact date when water supply will be back to normal.
There are two major causes to the problem, which affected several suburbs in the Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni municipalities. These are power outages and high demand, Rand Water General Manager of Operations, Mduduzi Mkhize explained.
Power failures, insufficient power supply and theft contributed to this staggering problem.
High demand
Rand Water explained that it experiences a decreased demand in winter and a higher demand during summer, with maximum demand during August, September and January. This is influenced by people watering gardens.
For instance, Rand Water experiences a rise in the demand during January, because that is the time when most factories and schools re-open.
The challenge for Rand Water is to fill all the reservoirs, not only because of the increased demand but also because of the current water crisis leading to water going out as soon as it flows into reservoirs.
People on higher-lying areas do not get water, as a reservoir needs to be about 50 percent full before it can supply these areas.
Dr Fawcett Ngoatje mentioned that Rand Water is currently in talks with the municipalities to determine a date when all the municipalities, City Power, Eskom, Rand Water and the portfolio committee can discuss this matter.
Mr Basson of the DA said it will be easiest if the municipalities and Rand Water can work together to control the outflow of water from the reservoir until there is enough water in the reservoirs to supply all.
