The latest news about water shortages in various parts of South Africa posing a threat to people’s lives and livelihoods.
Phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, expected to be completed in 2028, could provide Gauteng with enough water for all. But unless municipalities fix their ageing infrastructure, additional supply won’t help.
Unrestricted access to clean drinking water remains but a dream for Hammanskraal residents in the City of Tshwane nearly a year after the deaths of dozens of people in Gauteng from cholera, an illness linked to poor water quality.
Severe drought in southern Africa, exacerbated by El Niño, has led to extreme food insecurity and water shortages for millions. A recent study attributed the drought primarily to this weather pattern, rather than human-induced climate change.
The City of Tshwane has limped from one crisis to another in the past year — and now Mayor Cilliers Brink says his administration is rebuilding what has been broken.
Residents are feeling the pinch as taps run dry in Limpopo’s capital and in its biggest township.
Water losses, mostly caused by leaking or broken pipes and infrastructure, are untenably high in major cities. The biggest loser is Durban at 58%. At a national level, the government’s most recent water balance sheet puts non-revenue water losses at 47.4%, with pipe leaks calculated at 40.8%.
This is nothing but political. We got to this dire state of affairs because politicians and their accomplices at various water boards in charge of water infrastructure nationally and in local municipalities chose not to spend on planned maintenance and the repair of infrastructure.
Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda has unveiled a water security plan for ailing city systems despite having earlier denied that there was a crisis.
Residents of Randburg, Johannesburg, who went without water for weeks this month, were hit by another outage on Monday following Johannesburg Water’s announcement that it was fixing a burst water pipe. In Soweto, water outages continued.
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