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The water crisis intensifies due to Rand Water’s lack of maintenance of infrastructure

Gauteng residents have been left with no water due to Rand Water’s lack of adequate and regular maintenance of its water infrastructure. There has been a breakdown at the Vereeniging purification plant and a burst at the Palmiet pumping station, it is alleged that it was tampered with, which has impacted municipalities in rendering water to its residents.

Residents are urged to use water sparingly as the full recovery of the system could take up to 5 days. Please see the image here.

Three metros have been severely impacted, namely, Johannesburg, Tshwane, and Ekurhuleni. The residents in those metros are now suffering a double blow of no water and electricity due to continuous load shedding and water crisis in the province.

Some of the affected areas have been with no water since Friday. This is severely affecting the residents’ lives and digging deep into their pockets as some are forced to buy water while others have to travel to neighbouring suburbs to fetch water.

Water is life, and access to water is a basic right that our residents are currently being deprived of by this government. For far too long, the DA has been exposing Rand Water’s incompetency, and we have been pleading with the current government to adopt our proposal to curb the water crisis in the province.

However, instead of responding positively to this crisis, they displayed arrogance and used it as a politicking tool to lash out at us at the expense of our residents that are suffering due to a lack of constant water supply.

We reiterate our demand for the establishment of an intergovernmental task team comprising all spheres of government to find permanent solutions to the ongoing water crisis in the province. We also propose the establishment of an infrastructure protection task team to combat the vandalism of our infrastructure.

The DA also demands that there should be a closer and continuous working relationship between law enforcement agencies and Rand Water to protect and safeguard our water infrastructure.

Furthermore, we urge all our municipalities to declare war on water leaks to preserve water and manage water loss. We also urge residents to use water sparklingly and not to exceed their daily limits, and adhere to water level restrictions so that they can continue to access an uninterrupted water supply.

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DA to lodge a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission over water crisis in Gauteng

On Monday, 31 October 2022, the Official Leader of the Opposition in Gauteng, Solly Msimanga MPL, and the DA Gauteng Spokesperson for Infrastructure Development, Nico De Jager MPL, will be laying a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) in Braamfontein regarding the current water crisis in the province.

For many weeks our residents have been left with limited access to water and electricity. Rand Water has been calling on our residents to use water sparingly, yet during our recent oversight inspection of the pumping station and water reservoir in Eikenhof, we discovered that there is a water leak right outside their premises.

This is concerning as our residents are forced to collect water from water tankers which has already resulted in a 13-year-old boy being admitted to the hospital in critical condition after he was knocked over by a car while collecting water in Coronationville.

Access to water is a basic human right and this right is currently being infringed on by Rand Water which is throttling supply to various reservoirs and pumping stations in the province. This right should not become dangerous, and our residents pay for a service that they expect to be delivered without interruption.

The media is invited and there will be an opportunity for interviews and photographs

Details of the event are as follows:

Date: 31 October 2022

Time: 11:00

Address: 27 Stiemens St, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001

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Water leaks at Rand Water Eikenhof water reservoir and pumping station, while Gauteng residents are asked to use less water

Today, the Democratic Alliance (DA) embarked on a fact-finding mission to the Rand Water Eikenhof water reservoir and pumping station, and we were disappointed to discover that that there is a water leak and that clean drinking water was flowing freely just outside the pumping station, while residents are being asked to save water.

Rand Water blames our residents for not using water sparingly but from what we saw today, it is clear that this entity is failing to ensure that their infrastructure is properly maintained. Regular maintenance of our water infrastructure is critical if we want to prevent this infrastructure from collapsing.

We also engaged with the local ward councillors whose areas are the most affected by the load-shedding and current throttling of the supply of water in Hursthill.

Residents have to rely on water tankers and, in one incident a 13-year-old child was knocked down by a car while collecting water and is in critical condition. Old age homes and hospitals in the area are also affected by the shortage of water.

It is for this reason that next week we will be laying a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission (HRC) regarding the current water situation in the province. Our residents are being denied their basic human rights by not having access to a constant reliable supply of water on a daily basis.

While residents can manage without electricity, they cannot survive without water. Furthermore, this is also having a negative impact on businesses that are required to use water in the production of their goods.

The DA will continue to put pressure on the relevant government stakeholders and entities to urgently establish an intergovernmental task team that will come up with a decisive plan that will ensure all residents can have access to a reliable supply of water.

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DA to embark on a fact-finding mission at Eikenhof water reservoir

Tomorrow, Tuesday, 24 October 2022, the Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng Provincial Leader, Solly Msimanga MPL and the DA Leader of the Johannesburg Caucus, Cllr Mpho Phalatse, will conduct an oversight inspection of the Eikenhof and Hursthill reservoir.

During the oversight inspection, we will be assessing the current state of the Rand Water Eikenhof water reservoir. For the last few weeks, Gauteng residents have had to endure very low water pressure and at times no water.

It is time that Rand Water comes clean about the real reasons why our residents in this province have had their human rights infringed upon.

Access to water is a basic human right and currently, our residents are being denied this right.

Furthermore, the ongoing issues with the supply of water will ultimately impact our water infrastructure. Continued water pressure is needed to ensure that raw sewage is pushed through the water pipelines and into wastewater treatment plants. If there is not sufficient water pressure in the pipes, this will lead to a build-up and could cause sewage leaks and burst pipes.

Details of the oversight inspection are as follows:
Oversight 1
Date: 25 October 2022
Time: 12pm
Address: Eikenhof Water Reservoir

Oversight 2
Date: 25 October 2022
Time: 1:30pm
Address: Hursthill Water Reservoir

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DA to embark on a fact-finding mission at Eikenhof water reservoir

Tomorrow, Thursday, 20 October 2022, the Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng Provincial Leader, Solly Msimanga MPL  will conduct an oversight inspection of the Eikenhof and Hursthill reservoir.

During the oversight inspection, we will be assessing the current state of the Rand Water Eikenhof water reservoir. For the last few weeks, Gauteng residents have had to endure very low water pressure and at times no water.

It is time that Rand Water comes clean about the real reasons why our residents in this province have had their human rights infringed upon.

Access to water is a basic human right and currently, our residents are being denied this right.

Furthermore, the ongoing issues with the supply of water will ultimately impact our water infrastructure. Continued water pressure is needed to ensure that raw sewage is pushed through the water pipelines and into wastewater treatment plants. If there is not sufficient water pressure in the pipes, this will lead to a build-up and could cause sewage leaks and burst pipes.

Details of the oversight inspection are as follows:
Oversight 1
Date: 20 October 2022
Time: 12pm
Address: Eikenhof Water Reservoir

Oversight 2
Date: 20 October 2022
Time: 1:30pm
Address: Hursthill Water Reservoir

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Time for Rand Water to come clean about the real reason for Gauteng residents being left without water

It is high time that Rand Water comes clean about the real reasons why it has started throttling the supply of water to residents across the Gauteng Province.

For nearly a month, the country has been subjected to load-shedding, which has now affected the supply of water to our residents. Many residents have been left with low water pressure or no water at all due to the ongoing load-shedding.

Furthermore, load-shedding, and reduced water pressure affect sewage lines that rely on a constant flow of water to push waste material in the system downline.

The Minister for Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, has awarded Rand Water with a license for additional capacity which means increased water pressure. While we welcome the increased capacity, we should be cautiously optimistic as the lack of maintenance of water infrastructure may result in more bursts due to increased water pressure.

The DA is therefore demanding that Rand Water restore the water supply to its full capacity and take our residents in their confidence and explain exactly why there is a problem with the supply of water in this province.

In addition, the DA will continue to demand that an inter-governmental task team is set up to deal with the water crisis. Our municipalities are the ones that are severely impacted, as they must ensure that all our residents have access to an uninterrupted water supply.

The DA is urging all our residents to please use water sparingly and adhere to the current water restrictions that are in place so that we can have a continued reliable supply of water.

The DA will also be engaging our residents affected by the current water crisis and will be running awareness campaigns regarding water-saving measures that can be implemented.

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Urgent plan needed to deal with the water crisis in Gauteng so that residents’ human rights are not infringed

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is demanding that Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi urgently implements a disaster management plan to deal with the current water crisis and load-shedding in the province.

For a few weeks now, residents living in Gauteng have been subjected to low water pressure or no water at all because the reservoirs are not able to fill up sufficiently because of the ongoing load-shedding.

The only way this crisis can be dealt with effectively is by doing the following:
• Establish a task team to deal with the water and electricity crisis.
• Outline the exact steps that will be taken to have the province become less dependent on Eskom.
• Embark on a public awareness campaign in conjunction with municipalities on water and electricity conservation.
• Engage Independent Power Producers so that additional electricity can be procured for the province.

The electricity crisis is not new, and the ANC-led government has had ample time to come up with a concrete strategy that would shield our residents from the incompetence of State-Owned Entity (SOE) Eskom.

The issues with Eskom have now had a ripple effect on the supply of water and if the current government was serious about ensuring that none of our resident’s human rights is infringed, they would have a plan in place ready to implement.

For service delivery to continue unhindered the provincial government must immediately get their ducks in a row.

A DA government in Gauteng will have a similar plan in place to the Western Cape, where residents are protected from higher stages of load-shedding because they have the extra energy-generating capacity by using hydroelectricity.

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Double whammy: Gauteng residents left without electricity and water

Gauteng residents are being dealt a double blow this week as they are left without electricity and in some instances without water.

In Gauteng, municipal water entities are solely dependent on electricity to pump water to reservoirs. The rolling blackouts are impacting the ability of municipal water entities to fill reservoirs and water towers in their areas.
Gauteng residents may only have a trickle or no supply of water.

No water in pipes will also affect sewage lines that rely on a constant flow of water to push waste material in the system downline.

The continued interruption of electricity to pump stations means that the stations cannot continue to pump sewage which will overflow into rivers and water courses.

It is unacceptable that Gauteng residents are continuously being put in this position because the current government is incapable of providing proper consistent basic services in the province and the country.

The DA-led municipalities in Gauteng will continue to engage with Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to provide an alternative supply of electricity so that our residents are afforded some protection from the continued ineptitude of Eskom.

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#GautengWaterCrisis: Minister Mchunu, Premier Makhura and Rand Water snub their noses at DA’s request for meetings and discussions on the Gauteng water crisis

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng has received no response from the Office of the Premier, Rand Water and the Minister of Water and Sanitation regarding our letters in which we requested that they urgently share their plans regarding the current water crisis in the province.

In our letter to the CEO of Rand Water, we requested an urgent meeting to discuss the way forward once the entity embarks on its planned maintenance of our water infrastructure. This request has been met with silence.

We also wrote to Premier David Makhura, regarding the fact that our municipalities do not have sufficient water tankers to ensure that all residents affected by the water outages during maintenance are supplied with water. On two previous occasions when Rand Water embarked on maintenance, the municipalities like Tshwane were not given sufficient notice so that they could procure additional water tankers. In this letter, we asked the Premier to liaise with the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to provide municipalities with water tankers. Again, this letter was met with silence.

In addition, we also wrote a letter to the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu regarding the refusal by his department to issue Rand Water with an additional licence to increase the water capacity in the province. Again, no response was received.

This is very worrying as the provision of water is a basic human right enshrined in our Constitution. As the DA, we have a responsibility to ensure that all our residents are given access to basic services and that their basic human rights are not infringed upon. In all our communication with the various stakeholders, we have offered solutions that would help to mitigate the problems that may arise from prolonged water outages due to the maintenance of our bulk water infrastructure.

In the next few days, we will be meeting with all our Mayors to discuss the plans that will be put in place to ensure the continuous supply of water to our residents.

Furthermore, the DA has received thousands of signatures on our petition to the Premier and COGTA MEC to lobby their national counterparts to engage with the South African Defence Force to assist with water tankers during the water outages. We also demand a proper audit of all our water infrastructure in Gauteng.

We urge all Gauteng residents to sign our petition to help end the water crisis in Gauteng. To sign or access the DA’s Water Crisis Petition, please click this link: https://petitions.da.org.za/p/gauteng-water-crisis

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#GautengWaterCrisis: Gauteng residents will continue to suffer without water as DA’s water motion has been denied

Today, the ANC in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature has denied the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) urgent motion to debate the water crisis in Gauteng before the next planned major Rand Water outage on 1 April 2022.

The ANC is running away from a debate that will expose the incompetence and failures of both their provincial and national governments to provide uninterrupted water supply to the residents of Gauteng.

The residents of Gauteng will continue to suffer for days on end without water because Rand Water, which is a national entity, unexpectedly cuts water supply to our municipalities. At the same time, no alternative sources are made available to ensure that our people have access to water during that period. The same happens when they are conducting water infrastructure maintenance.

The DA’s motion was aimed at debating solutions that must be put in place before the planned Rand Water outages scheduled from 1-3 April 2022 and beyond due to major maintenance of water infrastructure.

The failure to have a debate and discuss the solutions will result in many areas across Gauteng not having water. The areas that will be most affected are parts of Tshwane, Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, and Mogale City.

This province is heading for a disaster should there be no urgent interventions from the provincial government to ensure that they assist municipalities in providing water to the affected areas. The municipalities are already doing their part in providing water during outages; however, they do not have sufficient water tankers and are unable to deal with this crisis by themselves.

Gauteng faces a medium to long term water crisis because the water supply is not keeping up with the growth in its economy and population. The equation is that demand is rising daily but the supply of water is remaining the same. We must also note that Gauteng also supplies water to other municipalities outside the province such as Thembisile Hani (Mpumalanga) and Madibeng (North West).

In a short time, this province will have a limited water supply just like we have limited electricity supply if Rand Water’s supply capacity is not increased.

We are faced with a critical situation as the national Department of Water and Sanitation is refusing to approve Rand Water’s licence application to increase its water supply capacity in the province.

All these factors will lead to water scarcity in Gauteng and reiterate the importance of debating this matter to find solutions to this looming crisis. If we do not find solutions soon, it will lead to dire economic and humanitarian consequences.

The DA will continue to fight for an increased water supply in Gauteng to avert such a disaster. The DA is petitioning the Premier and COGTA MEC to lobby their national counterparts to declare all water infrastructure national key points to be exempted from load shedding and to engage with the South African National Defence Force to assist with water tankers during the water outages. We also demand a proper audit of all our water infrastructure in Gauteng. To sign or access the DA’s Water Crisis Petition, please click this link: https://petitions.da.org.za/p/gauteng-water-crisis

The DA will hand over a memorandum to the Premier, COGTA MEC and the CEO of Rand Water about the lack of water tankers during water outages, a severe lack of proper and regular maintenance of water infrastructure, and the need for a Water Indaba to discuss issues of investment into water infrastructure and funding as well as vandalism of water infrastructure

The DA will also be engaging with the Department of Water and Sanitation with regard to its refusal to grant a license to Rand Water to increase its water capacity supply. In the past several years, Gauteng has experienced massive growth in terms of the population due to immigration, and there is a dire need to increase Rand Water’s water supply capacity. We will also be engaging with Rand Water in terms of their water infrastructure maintenance plans and their ineffective communication to the municipalities. We will engage with all our municipalities across Gauteng to discuss the water crisis and how they can intervene in terms of awareness campaigns on how to save water as a scarce resource.

The ANC’s refusal to debate the water crisis exposes how they are willing to play political games instead of assisting our residents, who will be severely impacted by the scheduled planned water outages and future water problems. This is exactly what landed us in trouble with Eskom and the country’s electricity supply. If this is the ANC’s attitude, then Gauteng residents must brace themselves for water shedding.