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Lesufi warns of ‘bleak Christmas’ because of Gauteng’s water woes
Rand Water reported that 33% of the province's water was lost due to illegal connections, leaks, and aging infrastructure.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi. Picture: X / @GautengProvince
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi says residents could face hardships in December as the province grapples with ongoing water challenges.
Lesufi addressed the opening day of the two-day Gauteng Local Government Turnaround Summit, which started on Wednesday in Muldersdrift, Johannesburg.
The summit brings together leaders from all three levels of government, the private sector, and civil society to discuss strategies for tackling service delivery, infrastructure, and governance challenges facing municipalities in the province.
Lesufi on Gauteng water woes
In his keynote address, Lesufi emphasised that one of the major challenges was ensuring a consistent water supply to households by municipalities.
“If we can’t act on this issue of water in our province, a bleak Christmas is confronting our citizens,” he said.
The premier disclosed that during multiple meetings with executive mayors, members of the mayoral committee in charge of water, municipal managers, and chief financial officers from municipalities across Gauteng, they received a detailed report from Rand Water outlining the province’s water crisis.
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“Rand Water declares that there is a limit national government gives them to go and get water from our dams.
“They’ve not only reached that limit, they’ve exceeded that limit and there is no way that they can go and look for more water because it does not solve the problems that we have,” Lesufi continued.
He stated that Rand Water reported that 33% of the province’s water was lost due to illegal connections, leaks, and ageing infrastructure.
“Even if they can go and get extra water from the dams, the National Department of Water, the reality is that they will get water to lose water. So, we need to be creative, therefore.”
Gauteng water crisis action plan
Lesufi indicated that the provincial government has devised solutions to address the water challenges.
These involve municipalities, in collaboration with the Gauteng government and Rand Water, investing in systems to detect water losses.
The premier also stressed the urgency of disconnecting all illegal connections immediately.
“We are bringing all law enforcement agencies to support this task.”
He highlighted that another solution was for all municipalities to implement level 1 water restrictions.
READ MORE: Gauteng water crisis: No date for Day Zero but it will be a summer of outages
“We are going to deploy law enforcement agencies to protect all installations and ensure that our installations or infrastructure is protected.”
Lesufi further said that every municipality must make timely account payments, and all government institutions should ensure they settle their debts to municipalities.
He emphasised that this was essential for maintaining cash flow to effectively address these issues.
“We’re going to create a common centre where leakages are reported and we expect municipalities to immediately respond. This report is going to be made available every week.
“We’re going to establish a joint management structure comprising the minister of water and sanitation, Rand Water, the housing government and all municipalities where weekly reports will be given on how we are turning around the situation of water in our province,” the premier added.
Gauteng’s Quality of Life Survey
Earlier, Lesufi spoke about the findings of the 2023/24 Quality of Life Survey.
The survey, which was compiled by the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO), revealed that the overall perception of the standard of living in the province was that it had decreased.
“That report painted a bleak picture about our province; from areas where people need to access services to infrastructure development and our response time to the complaints that they lodge,” he told delegates.
The premier acknowledged that parts of Gauteng are in disrepair, with sewage overflowing, community and sports facilities in disarray, and hostels in poor condition.
READ MORE: Gauteng in state of ‘polycrisis’: 81% dissatisfied with government and 50% on grants
“We are confronted by ageing infrastructure, children are dying from expired food, our graveyards are not maintained and now we are facing challenges of water and electricity,” Lesufi said.
“Let’s accept one thing, that we are now swimming in a pool of crisis, that we can collectively drown or we can collectively swim to safer waters.
“We need to more away from talking into a much more action oriented programme that will immediately eliminate the frustrations of our people.”
He stressed that municipalities must ensure they pay their employees, settle their electricity bills with Eskom and Rand Water while continuing to provide services to residents.
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