Tshwane: Load shedding increases need for water conservation

Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu on Monday granted Rand Water permission to increase its bulk water allocation to address water shortages in parts of Gauteng.

Since then, Eskom has hiked power cuts from stage 2 to stage 4.

Rand Water has implemented level 2 water restrictions in Gauteng amid an increase in water consumption over the past two weeks, which Rand Water said has resulted in a decline in overall reservoir storage capacity from 52% to 38%.

The city's MMC for Utilities and Regional Operation Daryl Johnston says load shedding is a serious concern.

"Obviously load shedding is the first of which is of serious concern that we are now back to level four, and that has implications for pumping of water particularly within municipal boundaries. There are other areas within Rand Water that might also impact on the current conditions that is going to have potential significant consequences.

"At the moment I think Tshwane is in a slightly better condition then our neighbours in Johannesburg, but that's mainly because of technical issues that they had prior to the implementation of the restrictions."

Johnston doesn’t believe the province is hurtling toward a day-zero scenario where it completely runs out of water.

"We do not have a day-zero per say because our capacity is there. The water is in the dams, it is about delivering the water from the dams into the supply network and that is what we need to turn around.

"Rand Water's reservoirs levels dropped from the 50s down to the mid 30s and recently we had about 30 percent, but there is still a long way to go as Rand Water's targeted level is around 60 percent. So a significant effort has to be made from the residents in terms of using water as sparingly as possible just to give Rand Water's system time to recover."

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