We can still avoid water shedding if we use water sparingly – Lindiwe Sisulu

At a briefing to update South Africans on water challenges the country is facing, Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said that the country could avoid water shedding as a nation only if water was used sparingly.

“We are experiencing water shortages, please use water sparingly,” she said.

While the situation is serious, the minister said there was no need to panic.

According to the minister, climate change is affecting South Africa, with high temperatures leading to high demand for water.

“South Africa, like many other parts of the globe, is seeing a very dry season getting longer, more intense and more frequent. Climate change is a reality and it is affecting South Africa in this way,” she said.

Reiterating what the South African Weather Service (SAWS) has reported, Sisulu said the earliest any significant rainfall could be expected is in December.

Unpredictable rainfall, she added, was the single biggest threat to water security in the country.

While the briefing took place in SA’s economic hub of Gauteng, Sisulu stressed that water shortages were a nationwide problem.

READ MORE: Fears of drought disaster are understandable, but don’t panic about water in Gauteng

“Gauteng is not alone. There are other provinces like the Eastern Cape in particular and Limpopo, which include large municipalities and numerous smaller towns that have various levels of water restrictions in place and in some cases receive only intermittent supplies,” she said.

It was reported last week that a Day Zero-type situation is not yet on the horizon in Gauteng.

This is a reference to what occurred in Cape Town last year, with severe water restrictions and the fear that taps may have had to be turned off completely.

Last Monday, department of water and sanitation spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said although water levels were declining in the Vaal Dam, Day Zero had not yet arrived in the province.

He added the dam was standing at 50.7%, a decrease from what levels were last year this time.

This despite a tweet by the City of Johannesburg last Monday that announced water levels at the dam were less than 50%, for the first time in nearly three years.

The tweet was accompanied by a photo of a sign stating: “Our dams are almost empty – please do whatever you can to save water!”

Rand Water spokesperson Eddy Singo also told eNCA that current dam levels were at 49.64% last week. The week before, water levels at the dam, which is one of the critical dams in the integrated Vaal River system (IVRS), decreased to 51.5%, down from 53% the week prior to that.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman.) 

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