Water and sanitation minister to ask for load-shedding exemption to avoid Gauteng water cuts

The department of water and sanitation plans to meet the minister of electricity in a bid to exempt certain pump stations from load-shedding to avoid water outages in Gauteng.

The province’s municipalities have, in recent months, experienced dry taps due to water outages caused by blackouts.

For example, residents supplied by the Grand Central pump station can go days without water. Serisha Mark, who lives in Waterfall, said most inconvenient is being unable to flush the toilet.

“There is a hygiene issue. You can finish 15 litres of water in no time. You need about 10 litres of water to flush the toilet.”

Another issue was bathing and brushing teeth, she said.

“I need to figure out every day whose house I can go to. Sometimes I go to my aunt, but sometimes she doesn’t have water. Then I have to drive to my mother’s house in Centurion. There are just extra costs involved. I can live without electricity, but not water. What about the people who cannot afford to buy it?” she asked.

Minister of water and sanitation Senzo Mchunu, executive mayors, municipal representatives and senior Rand Water officials gave an update on water services in the province on Tuesday.

Mchunu said January and February saw peak demand from Rand Water due to heatwaves. This and high levels of load-shedding resulted in some systems malfunctioning.

“This led to Rand Water losing its production capacity and subsequently experiencing low water levels in its reserve reservoirs, resulting in municipalities not being able to meet their peak and fluctuating demand to residents,” he added.

Mchunu's deputy, David Mahlobo, a Tshwane resident, said he had also gone several days without water at home.

He said the department would ask electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa to exempt some areas.

“Those discussions would have to happen between the two ministers, including Eskom and all entities in the water sectors, so we know which systems are more critical. If there is no water, there are problems in terms of education, food security, hospitals, to name a few.”

Gauteng’s water consumption is higher than that of the rest of the country and much higher than the world average. 

South Africans, on average, consume 233 litres per person per day. The world average is 173 litres. Those in Gauteng, however, consume at least 300l a day.

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