Two weeks after the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane, announced when opening the Vaal Dam’s sluice gates that ‘water restriction are over’, no notice has been placed in the government gazette.
The City of Johannesburg’s water and sanitation entity, Johannesburg Water, can only lift the level-2 restrictions once the notice appears. The government gazette is published every Friday. “There was nothing on Friday. Until we get the notice everything remains unchanged,” Tidimalo Chuene, Johannesburg Water spokesperson said on 13 March.
Level-2 water restrictions as they are currently:
- No use of any irrigation or sprinkler systems for watering of gardens with municipal water
- Watering only before 6am or after 6pm with a handheld hosepipe.
- No filling of pools with municipal water
- Top-up to allow filter to work only. It is recommended that pool owners invest in a cover, as this significantly reduces evaporation – which is at over 1.2 metres per year for the average pool
- No washing of cars and cleaning paved areas with a hosepipe using municipal water.
Read: Joburg restrictions remain, for now
At a stakeholder meeting on 10 March, the entity’s executive manager for stakeholder relations and communications, Hilgard Matthews, said that the entity plans on keeping some of the restrictions such as the times residents are allowed to water their gardens.
“We have a large water footprint on Joburg. We used 309 litres per capita per day before the restrictions. This is well above the international standard of around 176 litres,” he said.
“Even though the restrictions will be lifted, we should keep the mindset of saving water. We need to harvest rainwater and used recycled grey water.”
Will you still implement water saving measures in you home after the restriction are lifted? Tell us why or why not by sending an email to chantellef@caxton.co.za
Also read:
Metro cracks down on water wasters
