Be prudent with water use at home, there’s a triple squeeze on supply

Do not expect the kind of rain which tempers heat, cools sweating brows, brings window-rattling thunder, scares cats and children, and ultimately fills dams until at least December, Minister of Human Settlements, Water & Sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu said yesterday.

Along with the raw sewage running into the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS), as well as the further handicap by the closure of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project – which supplies 780,000 million litres of water per annum and generates 72MW of hydropower at the Muela Power Station – for the next two months for maintenance, this means bad news for the water supply to Gauteng and other regions.

The IVRS supplies water to 46% of the country’s economy and 33% of the population.

However, there was no need to panic, Sisulu insisted yesterday.

“We are experiencing high temperatures and increased demand for water. We are also experiencing very low rainfall,” Sisulu said at Rand Water yesterday.

“Compounding the situation are indications rainfall will become harder to predict. South Africa, like many other parts of the globe, is seeing a very dry season getting longer and more intense.”

Sisulu said there was a need to be “prudent” with water usage.

Rand Water supplies water to Gauteng, North West, Free State and Mpumalanga and has already throttled some municipalities to slow down water usage.

As of October 24, the Vaal Dam was at 48.8%, Sterkfontein Dam 91.5%, Grootdraai Dam 54.4%, and Bloemhof Dam 80.2%.

One of the biggest issues facing the IVRS was the persistent raw sewage running from 26 waste water treatment systems into the Vaal River, stretching from Mpumalanga to the Northern Cape, according to the Save the Vaal Environment website.

With the affected municipalities unable to clean house, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was sent in with their engineers to bring about change.

However, they ran into the end of their promised R341 million budget and were subsequently withdrawn.

“The SANDF is the heavy lift. So the dredging and cleaning would have needed them and they have done the job and they have now left. Erwat (East Rand Water Care Company) will now continue dealing with the matter specifically of cleaning out the Vaal,” the website reported.

According to Gauteng provincial head of water and sanitation, Sibusiso Mthembu, there was still about R161 million for Erwat to begin its job while Sisulu waited for the other R800 million she had asked for from Treasury to clean up the system.

If the budget was received, Mthembu said, then it would take a year to clean the system.

Writing for Moneyweb, visiting adjunct professor at the University of the Witwatersrand Mike Muller noted Gauteng’s population was growing by 3% annually, “as people flock in to look for work”.

“The fastest-growing water use sector is domestic supply by municipalities. But water availability from the Vaal River system will remain the same until the Polihali Dam is completed,” Muller said.

“This means that, to avoid a water crisis in the event of a drought between now and 2026, water use per person in the region is going to have to reduce by 3% every year.”

– amandaw@citizen.co.za

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