As Rand Water warns of wider system collapse, Soweto and Johannesburg taps still dry

A Soweto resident fetches water amid the Rand Water crisis on 15 March 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Fani Mahuntsi)

By Ferial Haffajee

17 Mar 2024

Pretoria warns residents to save water as it could be next with multi-day power cuts.

On Friday, 15 March, Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda said, “By tomorrow morning we will see water start running through the taps.”

On Sunday, 17 March, Johannesburg Water said the system remained under “severe strain”, and the bulk supplier, Rand Water, warned that its system faced imminent collapse. Many taps are still as dry as a bone.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/K0N3mWw1-d8

The chart below shows that Rand Water reservoirs, which supply the three Gauteng metros – Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni – and 14 other municipalities and 27 mines, are perilously low. It also reveals that while Johannesburg and Rand Water blamed a lightning strike that knocked out a substation at the Eikenhof pumping station, the reserve decline led to freefall.

Rand Water has blamed it on the weather and high consumption, but water specialists and councillors say this doesn’t explain the crisis. Johannesburg Water also blamed the heatwave for the ongoing cuts. (An outage at Eikenhof in January 2023 also caused a water crisis, as this report shows.)

rand water collapse

On Saturday, 16 March, Rand Water CEO Sipho Mosai and his team called an emergency meeting at 9.30am with officials from the three metros to warn of a collapse. Pretoria immediately put in place water restrictions while the latest water crisis in Johannesburg, which started on 3 March, extended into its third week.

The water cuts, low pressure and throttling affect the entire system; only some areas have regular supplies. Large parts of Soweto had dry taps and residents reported that local shops ran out of bottled water or could not afford to buy more. Johannesburg Water has between 25 and 28 water tankers – insufficient for the scale of the crisis.

rand water collapse soweto Residents of Dube and Meadowlands in Soweto fetch water on 15 March 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Fani Mahuntsi)

rand water collapse soweto A Soweto resident fetches water on 15 March 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Fani Mahuntsi)

By Sunday, 17 March, a Johannesburg Water update said it would throttle systems (reducing water supply to a trickle) to help reservoirs build supplies. The Central system, which supplies the east of the city, was struggling, while the Berea reservoir, which supplies the inner city, had poor pressure and no water.

The overall Soweto system was “under strain”, with Meadowlands reservoir closed, affecting Meadowlands, Orlando West, Dube, Mzimhlophe, Mofolo North and Central, as well as Diepkloof. Diepsloot and Riversdale View also suffered from low pressure to no supply.

The Deep South, which includes Orange Farm, Ennerdale, Lawley and Lenasia, were dry or struggling. Eleven reservoirs in some of the poorest parts of the city would be throttled or closed overnight. These are the areas where people can’t afford to buy bottled water as is a norm now in the suburban city.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Unfolding water crisis in Johannesburg deepens as officials scramble for answers

It’s hot, but is that unusual?

rand water collapse heat wave

Rand Water says the heatwave is driving the crisis, as its water demand chart shows. Southern Africa is facing its hottest February and March. (See Ed Stoddard’s report on El Niño). The weather is a factor, but Johannesburg generally has hot summers which are predictable for water planners.

“You can’t blame heatwaves for Rand Water under-supplying. You have to ask how much they are increasing supply. My biggest concern is we will run out of water. We have dry winters, and our springs are getting hotter and hotter. At this rate, we could run out by October,” says Johannesburg DA councillor Bridget Steer, an expert on the city’s water supply.

Rand Water did not respond to three requests for comment on its warning of a system collapse.

“It’s probably been the hardest time in my life as a councillor,” says Nicole van Dyk, DA councillor in Ward 99, which took the biggest knock from the 3 March multiday water cut. It includes Linden, Blairgowrie, Cresta and surrounding areas.

“You can get the power back on; you can clean the streets, but if the water’s not pumping, there’s nothing you can do.” Her persistence in getting answers as the cuts stretched to nine days led to the revelation that a valve at Rand Water’s Waterval Dal reservoir on Northcliff Hill had been closed, shutting the supply. News24 first reported it here.

rand water collapse

The chart from a Joburg Water presentation to councillors shows that the valve had been closed, causing at least part of the polycrisis. The reservoir started filling up within an hour of council workers opening it. Linden was one of the few stable reservoirs this weekend.

Steer says each reservoir has “telemetrics” (measuring systems which log back digitally to a separate team).

“They [Rand Water] know what inflows and reservoir levels are at any point. [Why is it] only when Joburg Water arrived at the reservoir were the valves checked and found to be closed? It was opened and started flowing?”

Rand Water said it is investigating and has not provided an update. Water tankers are big money, and residents have told Daily Maverick that in some areas in the city’s south, tankers arrive just before unscheduled water cuts. Joburg Water said it would investigate this when we asked last year. There has been no update. (This is an excellent explainer by The Outlier of how the Rand Water system to Johannesburg works.)

Gwamanda promises, but doesn’t deliver

Daily Maverick sent questions about the latest water crisis to Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda’s office and will report the answers when provided. Last year, Gwamanda promised to set up a task team on water when residents in the south blocked the road into town after months of cuts and intermittent supply.

They also flash-mobbed a televised briefing by Johannesburg Water to highlight their plight.

“The task team did not materialise. We had one meeting to discuss the terms of reference and that was it. We have not heard anything from them. Recently we have had intermittent water and low pressure. You can’t use geysers to shower, use washing machines, dishwashers because of low pressure. The irony is that there are leaks all over yet some don’t receive water,” said a community representative.

Van Dyk said she reported three major leaks alone over the weekend. Johannesburg is a fountain of burst pipes as the old network breaks. The councillor said estimates by Joburg Water had shown for years that the city needs to replace at the bare minimum 300/400km of old pipes a year to maintain the system. Still, it’s only scheduled to replace 28km this year.

“Summer is not a surprise. We’re a hot country. The fact that the Joburg water system is collapsing is not a surprise either,” she said.

Gwamanda promised another “action plan” for water and water infrastructure maintenance on Friday, 15 March. DM

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Gwamanda promises, but doesn’t deliver