EDITORIAL | Will Gauteng’s water outage douse future fires?

While we appreciate the timely warning and clear communication regarding why taps in eight Gauteng municipalities will be dry for a few days, municipalities, which were given 21 days’ notice of the outage, must ensure availability to ratepayers.

In the same way government moved to prepare ratepayers for the anticipated disruption, we hope the same energy flows to ensure water tankers are dispatched not only to the affluent areas, but also townships.

Water engineer Eddie Singo of Rand Water, who will spearhead the project, last week said consumers should manage well if they are prepared and ready to reduce consumption to the absolute minimum and if municipalities roll out water tanks as and when needed.

Last week, Rand Water said upgrading the water system and the addition of a water pipe to pump the resource from the Vaal Dam had been continuously postponed since 2019 and could no longer wait. But as consumers try to navigate running their businesses and households, while also contending with Covid-19 crisis, is this also a good time to pray Eskom goes easy on load-shedding, allowing residents to face one struggle at a time?

Rand Water has sold the latest stoppage as one that will be beneficial in the long run.

Earlier this year, locals, particularly in Johannesburg, bore the brunt of an ailing water system which led to days of low pressure or no water at all. The situation was so dire that taps in hospitals, such as the Helen Joseph Academic Hospital and the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital, also ran dry, leading to important surgeries being postponed or patients being diverted elsewhere. Old, ailing infrastructure was blamed as 15 days without water was reported at the latter.

With water tankers being deployed, but not managing the demand, Gift of the Givers stepped in to drill boreholes at the hospital, offering a long-awaited, sustainable solution to the crisis at the facility. 

At the time, the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said the water woes which hit the Helen Joseph hospital had been linked to the death of a patient who needed renal dialysis, but had his treatment postponed because of the outages.

Rand Water has sold the latest stoppage as one that will be beneficial in the long run, saying the move will secure flexibility during future shutdowns and maintenance, and ensure the city’s water needs are met well past 2040.

So 54 hours without water seems a small sacrifice to make should Rand Water execute its mission well, with no corners cut, no corruption and no reports of missing funds trickling in later.

Should everybody play their part, municipalities included, this should be smooth sailing with, for at least the next two decades, no further outage such as this.