By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Johannesburg Water (JW) team led by its MD Ntshavheni Mukwevho held a press briefing on the current state of water supply in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) on November 28.
The team consisted of senior operations manager Logan Munsamy and spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala.
They outlined water challenges, new developments that have taken place, and the mitigation strategies that the entity has in place to manage the situation. The special focus was on the Commando System (Brixton, Crosby and Hursthill).
CoJ’s current average consumption is 1 750Ml/d and Rand Water (RW) supplied the CoJ with 1 600Ml/d from December 1.
Subsequently, RW will then reduce the supply to 1 550Ml/d between February and April next year, then gradually reduce the supply to 1 356Ml/d by September 2025.
In an attempt to collect more revenue and improve the water supply, the entity has embarked on a cut-off operation in different areas across the city, targeting informal settlements that have illegally connected to the system.
Mukwevho appealed to residents to use water sparingly and pay their water bills to ensure continued water supply.
“We’re encouraged that we are seeing progress in the work that we’ve been doing, but we appeal to residents to assist us with water demand management. We also appeal to the residents to assist us in using the water sparingly because that’s what will help us all together to make sure that we reduce the demand.
“We are doing all this because the demand is quite high, and if we don’t do this, we’ll end up having a challenge.”
Mukwevho defended the water restrictions, saying they are necessary to help struggling reservoirs.
The water cuts have been effective from 10 pm to 4 am daily.
“We do this so that we can make sure that we reduce the losses that happen during the night, especially in those areas where we have a high minimum night flow.
“We also do this for systems that are struggling to build sufficient storage to make sure that we are able to supply sufficiently during the day, and all these interventions are very necessary,” he added.
Meanwhile about 200 frustrated residents from Westbury, Westdene, Claremont, and Hursthill filled the Coronationville Hall on Monday evening to voice their unhappiness that they have not had consistent running water for years.
Community leader, Bianca Olivier, questioned why officials had even come to the meeting if no one had answers for when their water would be switched on again.
“They are only telling us of water trucks and Jojo tanks. But the water trucks don’t come to the community every single day,” she said.
At the end of the meeting, residents agreed to select representatives from each area to sit on a committee tasked with engaging officials regularly on water issues in their communities.