Rand Water attributes Gauteng water shortages to maintenance issues

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Rand Water CEO Sipho Mosai says the reason behind some reservoir storage levels dropping is because they need maintenance.

Gauteng has been battling with water shortages due to significant infrastructure backlogs and rolling blackouts that affect water pumping.

This led to the introduction of water shifting to ensure a continuous and sustainable water supply.

Water shifting is redirecting the water flow from areas with lower consumption to communities affected by outages and shortages.

Mosai was speaking during a media briefing at the Rand Water headquarters in Glenvista, south of Johannesburg.

Mosai says that reservoirs need to be inspected, cleaned and regularly maintained.

Meanwhile, Rand Water has classified the Cities of Tshwane and Ekurhuleni as the biggest under-performing municipalities that are not paying them on time.

The two metros combined owe the water utility over a billion rands.

Mosai says the entity won’t be able to develop and maintain infrastructure to solve water challenges if they don’t receive payments on time.

“We are adding infrastructure to store, and purify water… As I indicated earlier on, we are self-reliant and self-sufficient; we get no assistance from the fiscals so it is important that we get paid on time to maintain the system.”

More details in the briefing below: