Leaks in Gauteng’s water network have increased: Department

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The Water and Sanitation Department says the number of leaks in the municipal water distribution systems in Gauteng has increased over past ten years, due to a lack of maintenance by municipalities.

For the past few weeks, the City of Johannesburg has been grappling with serious water outages. The department says it has planned a second phase of the Lesotho Highlands project to bring more water to Gauteng from the mountains.

Director-General Dr Sean Phillips urged all municipalities in Gauteng to conserve water and avoid water leakages.

“The public in Gauteng and Johannesburg and other municipalities need to use water more sparingly. The problem is that the current situation is that when there are heatwaves or when there are disruptions due to for example electrical breakdowns then the demand is very close to the available water from rainwater it means that it becomes very difficult for the reservoirs to fill and then supply water to high -lying areas. So those are the main causes of why we’re in a difficult situation in Johannesburg.”