Capable leadership ultimate solution to Gauteng water crisis

As spring and summer approach, Gauteng and surrounding provinces face another water crisis.

Sadly, this has become the new normal for our country, after years of failure to upgrade our infrastructure for our growing population.

We have been unprepared in previous seasons, including last year, resulting in dire consequences. This season, and for those to come, we ought to not only prepare ourselves for periods of water shortages – but also, as citizens, take greater responsibility in ensuring the quality provision of our basic services. This includes electing stable local councils.

Gauteng’s bulk water supplier, Rand Water, services a population of about 14-million people, including parts of Mpumalanga, the Free State and North West. It shares its service areas with the Vaal Central and Magalies Water Boards, which face imminent bankruptcy. A fuller discussion on the deterioration of our water bodies nationally requires a separate piece.

Returning to Gauteng, the province’s population has grown sizeably in the past two decades. In 2001, Gauteng had a population of nine-million residents, which today is estimated at more than 15-million.

In this period, while Gauteng has welcomed more than six-million residents, it has not upgraded its infrastructure to accommodate them.

The City of Johannesburg alone faces a water infrastructure deficit of about R27bn, as its year-on-year water infrastructure expenditure is a third of the city’s needs.

Consequently, as its infrastructure faces immense pressure from a population size it cannot accommodate, leaks then begin to emerge.

For Gauteng residents, images of burst pipes are too familiar. On average, Gauteng municipalities lose 40% of their water (or non-revenue water). While a portion of this goes to indigent residents, the vast majority is lost through leaks.

More than consumers being unable to access water due to leaks, municipalities also cannot make revenue on water lost, resulting in less funding towards infrastructure.

In addition to water losses through leaks, various municipalities in Gauteng over-consume. Per population size, Rand Water sets consumption targets.