Water rationing on the way for metros

The refusal of Gauteng metro residents and businesses to reduce their water consumption has caused sporadic shortages.

Ekurhuleni, on the East Rand, and Tshwane are getting ready to impose water rationing.

For now, only Tshwane's northern suburbs face water restrictions, but all of Ekurhuleni will be rationed.

In August the Department of Water and Sanitation said it would compel municipalities that received their water from the Vaal River system to reduce their water consumption by 15% to compensate for the drought, which has caused the water levels of dams to drop dangerously.

Ekurhuleni managed to reduce consumption by only 3.5%; and Johannesburg achieved savings of about 10%.

Johannesburg's mayoral committee member responsible for the environment and infrastructure services, Anthony Still, warned residents and businesses to take the restrictions seriously.

"Residents will be aware that Rand Water has been required to restrict supply to Johannesburg by 15%. This has happened.

"The latest figures show that demand has reduced by just less than 10%. Although this is an improvement, it's still difficult for Johannesburg Water to balance the system," he said.

As a result of failing to cut their water consumption, residents of Ekurhuleni have had to endure water-rationing between 9pm and 5am since last night.

Ekurhuleni has warned that if night rationing does not result in sufficient savings the city would introduce day-time rationing.

The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said yesterday the national Treasury had allocated R212-million in drought relief for animal feed in the past three months to help livestock farmers hit heavily by the drought.

All the provinces - except Gauteng, which has not declared a drought state of emergency - will receive allocations ranging from R12-million to R38-million to tide them over until the advent of adequate rainfalls, expected some time next month or early in the new year.