In a special Council meeting held recently, Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Finance, Farouk Bhayat, announced that Mogale City Local Municipality has begun to address issues of water loss with the #SaveWater campaign.
Read more: Water losses due to unknown major leak?
Bhayat said that water loss is a long-term oriented matter and cannot be addressed quickly.
“We are however, committed to bringing the percentage loss down gradually. We have strategies in place to achieve such reductions,” he said.
During the Auditor General’s report on Mogale City’s financial standing for 2014/2015, it was said that 42 percent of water bought from Rand Water, was lost throughout the year.
Read more: Mogale gets clean audit for 2014/ 2015
“The campaign forms part of an aggressive government drive to encourage long-term behavioural change in how municipalities, public institutions and members of the public use water, particularly in light of poor rains and soaring temperatures,” a statement on Mogale City’s website read.
The campaign, according to Bhayat, serves to educate Gauteng communities about saving water and making small but significant changes to their daily habits, to ensure that there is enough water for current and future generations.
The six #SaveWater campaign pillars:
• Intensifying the detection and repair of water leaks at municipal level
• Encouraging residents to harvest rainwater in tanks
• Upgrading water-pumping capacity and infrastructure
• Ensuring an uninterrupted water supply to essential services facilities like hospitals
• Bringing Eskom on to ensure that Rand Water’s pumping facilities are not affected by power outages or load shedding; and
• Educating communities on how to use water efficiently and sparingly.
Mogale City’s Department of Infrastructure Services, headed by MMC David Letsie, also has an infrastructure development programme where old water pipes are replaced with new ones.
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