The nation’s collective groan as Eskom announced on Tuesday it was heading back into dreaded stage 6 load-shedding was not exclusively reserved for the debilitating impact extended power cuts have on homes, businesses and indeed every sector of society.
The anger and frustration were also aimed at the inevitable and increasingly problematic side-effect of blackouts: municipal water supply, or lack thereof.
Power cuts of 10 hours a day or more are decimating pumps at reservoirs around the country. Higher demand for water due to the recent hot weather has worsened the situation, and pump stations are unable to fully recover before the next power outage kicks in.
Eskom on Tuesday implemented stage 5 load-shedding from noon, moving to stage 6 at 9pm until 5am on Wednesday, after which stage 5 was due to kick in again until further notice. The move was a result of six generating units suffering breakdowns in the previous 24 hours, the power utility said.
Higher stages of load-shedding have caused SA’s water supply to become increasingly precarious in municipalities around the country.
To be fair, load-shedding cannot shoulder all the blame for water supply challenges across SA. Ageing infrastructure and poor management are also a substantial part of the problem. But the impact that power cuts are having on water supply are immense. And the inevitable blame game has commenced.
Large sections of Johannesburg have been hit by massive water disruptions. Taps in some areas have been dry for more than three days, severely affecting schooling, businesses and households.
Johannesburg Water said on Tuesday it would take more than 72 hours for the water infrastructure attached to the Eikenhof system — which supplies large areas of the city — to recover after the power failure on Sunday.
South Africa’s water crisis will quickly worsen if decisive action is not taken to address it. A water predicament, the magnitude of our current electricity crisis, would be a final death knell for SA.
Further north, Tshwane has suffered water cuts for more than a week as water reserves at Rand Water remain low because of power outages and increased consumption.
In Ekurhuleni, Benoni residents continue to battle with inconsistent water supply, with the metro reportedly blaming Rand Water for low levels in reservoirs. If there is not enough water, the pumps can’t pull the water.
Rand Water admits its water-purification plants are struggling to supply water to reservoirs but says the problem is caused by power supply failures, which leave some reservoirs without water.
In KwaZulu-Natal, where Durban and other coastal towns are already battling an ongoing sewage crisis after last April’s deadly floods damaged the city’s sewage system, water supply has also been affected. The Ugu district municipality said on Monday that the Umtamvuna Dam had run out of raw water storage and the plant was depleted. It warned residents living between Port Edward and Ramsgate, and inland from kweNkosi to Mbeni, that supply was affected.
In the Western Cape, the Cape Town metro on Tuesday warned residents to limit their water usage, saying sustained high stages of load-shedding had impacted its ability to build up reserves in its reservoirs.
The responses by authorities to the latest water crisis have been varied.
On Monday, the Western Cape provincial government announced R88.8m in emergency funding would be allocated for the procurement of backup generators for the treatment and supply of water services. Gauteng has adopted more of a knee-jerk reaction.
Johannesburg Water on Tuesday said it was “monitoring” regions with low pressure and had deployed tankers to areas where there is little or no supply. More than 20 regions in the city are affected. Beyond that, there seems to be no medium to long term plan to deal with the water issue. Mayoral musical chairs in the city has not helped, with service delivery clearly the last thing on the minds of power-hungry political parties.
Tshwane mayor Randall Williams said he had “constructive engagement” with Rand Water on Monday night but did not elaborate, other than to say their focus was on the inability to get the city’s high-lying reservoirs to recover in areas such as Soshanguve, Mooikloof, Grootfontein and Laudium. Exactly how they will do that remains to be seen.
SA’s water crisis will quickly worsen if decisive action is not taken. A water predicament, the magnitude of our current electricity crisis, would be a final death knell for SA. Our leaders must act now. Municipalities — many of which are paralysed by bickering coalitions that care more about power than service delivery — must put politics aside and do what ratepayers pay them to do — provide water and other basic services to the people who voted them into power.
But our track record shows this is unlikely to happen. And so it is left to the citizens of SA to take to the streets to show their anger.
A national shutdown to protest against load-shedding is planned for March 20. Water supply must be part of that protest, and residents are urged to make their voices heard and force our leaders into action. Our future depends on it.
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