Gauteng water situation untenable, system at 33% - Mahlobo
Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister David Mahlobo says the Gauteng water system currently sits at a mere 33%.
The province is experiencing water shortages across several municipalities due to infrastructure challenges and high consumption.
In an attempt to avoid a total water outage, the City of Johannesburg implemented water throttling earlier this month, restricting water access from 9 pm to 4 am weekly.
Mahlobo spoke during a webinar hosted by Daily Maverick on Tuesday.
"The situation in Gauteng is untenable and it has to be defined as a water crisis. One of the issues that we need to confirm is that are we are running out of water in Gauteng?
"The reality is that Gauteng is supplied by the Vaal River system. That system is very stable. At this stage, I can indicate that about 33% of the available water in the system on the basis of high consumption but also on the basis of evaporation.
"Because the manner in which that dam was actually designed and built is very long in terms of width and length, but when it comes to the issues of structural, in terms of the depth, is not so deep as other dams.”
Mahlobo said the Free State and Sterkfontein systems are full and on standby.
"In as much as we might have closed the tunnel in Lesotho, it doesn't have an impact. The biggest problem we have is water use inefficiency that is happening in Gauteng.”
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