City council denies water crisis

The City of Johannesburg has refuted claims that the municipality may resort to water rationing.

“Johannesburg Water would like to inform all residents of Johannesburg that there is a false report circulating about water shortages in the city,” the utility said in a statement.

This follows a report by Times newspaper, claiming that Johannesburg will soon struggle to maintain a reliable water supply to its more than four million residents.

The newspaper stated that according to a report by Joburg Water, unless consumption was reduced, supply would outstrip demand by next year.

However, the utility has since denied the existence of the report.

Executive Mayor Parks Tau urged the city council, Joburg Water and residents to use water sparingly to reduce water consumption per capita.

During his State of the City Address on 14 April, he noted that by 2030 the demand for water would increase by 30 percent.

“Living sustainability means grappling with the ‘perfect storm’ associated with the inseparability of water, food, energy and climate,” Tau said.

Joburg Water echoed Tau’s sentiments and said that efforts to reduce the city’s water demand was a collective responsibility. However, it had developed a Water Conservation and Water Demand Management Strategy, which included interventions such as pressure management, water pipe replacement, and active and passive leak detection.

These initiatives were currently being implemented.

However, DA spokesperson of Joburg Water, Ralf Bittkau said the municipality was not doing enough to avert the potential crisis.

“The fact is we might find ourselves having water rationing,” he said. “All departments involved, including planning, Joburg Water and health need to come on board… at the moment we are destroying our waterways at an alarming rate.”

Water rationing had been previously implemented to reduce consumption, imposing restrictions on people watering their gardens and issuing fines to those who failed to comply, he said.

Bittkau explained that in order to avoid water rationing, water needed to be conserved and water pollution stopped.

He said in order to achieve this, unaccounted water must be reduced at a higher rate than it currently was, and manufacturing companies must be compelled to install water treatment plants to ensure that they reuse water rather than utilising fresh water.