Water restrictions on top of power cuts, heatwave in Gauteng

As the first heatwave of spring is expected to last until the weekend, some areas in Gauteng were issued with stage 2 water restrictions. This week the South African Weather Service announced the first of many heatwaves expected this summer.

Communications manager Hannelee Doubell said a heatwave was a term used to describe a spell of at least a few days or sometimes longer of unusually hot and dry conditions over a particular area.

Doubell said the weather service has determined, particularly for SA conditions, that for a heatwave to be declared, the maximum temperature at a particular station should reach or exceed the average maximum temperature for the hottest month for three or more consecutive days.

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The service’s climate data analysis and research chief scientist Dr Andries Kruger said hot days or heatwaves were more likely during El Nino seasons because it was relatively drier. He said heatwaves were likely to occur in any year.

“Especially in the mid-spring to early-summer period, if the summer rainfall-bearing weather systems are not established over South Africa, extended spells of hot days are quite likely,” he said.

Bees less active because of the heat

Natizel Nursery owner Gerhard Johnson said the heatwave impacted plants and bees were less active because of the heat.

“In winter, I watered the plants once a week. Now I water the plants every second day,” he said.

Johnston said despite the heat, rain should ideally only start to fall between 10 and 15 October for a good rain season. He has 30 000 roses to water daily.

“If I don’t water them, they will die,” he said. Johnston said he was aware of the water restrictions and added that it had been a problem for a while.

“Who knows where it will stop? We will probably run out of water as we ran out of energy and everything else,” he said.

MMC for utilities and regional operations in City of Tshwane Daryl Johnston has appealed to residents to comply with stage 2 water restrictions to avoid taps running dry.

“The City of Tshwane would like to call on residents and businesses to properly manage and reduce water consumption to comply with the stage 2 water restrictions. This water conservation call follows an urgent notification by Rand Water on Monday, giving a directive to the City of Tshwane, City of Joburg and City of Ekurhuleni to immediately implement stage 2 water restrictions,” he said.

“Large parts of Johannesburg are currently dealing with water outages and we have examples of worse situations in the rest of the country, such as Nelson Mandela Bay having serious water concerns and eThekwini having implemented water shedding, or rotation water outages, earlier this year.

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“Currently, the City of Tshwane does not have water outages caused by the water restrictions,” he said.

Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said due to Rand Water’s water supply restrictions, reservoirs were running low, resulting in residents experiencing low to no water supply. Areas severely affected include Morehill, Crystal Park, Hillcrest, Benoni, Cloverdale, Chief Albert Luthuli, Daveyton, Mayfield, Etwatwa, Tsakane, Springs, Langaville and Dal Park.