Gauteng water crisis won’t be solved without infrastructure and demand interventions

By Natasha Odendaal

Gauteng, South Africa’s most populous province and economic hub, eagerly anticipates a significant inflow of additional water in 2028 from the second phase of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) to plug demand gaps in its water network.

However, it is not a silver bullet for Gauteng’s water woes, as no intervention or solution will ensure the province is water secure, unless local reticulation systems are fixed and water demand reduced.

Gauteng has experienced increasingly frequent and widespread water outages, with many suburbs and communities going for days or weeks with little or no water on a regular basis.

Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina has gone so far as to call it a self- inflicted crisis, laying blame on the doorstep of municipalities, which have not fixed leaking pipes, maintained aging infrastructure or tackled illegal connections.

Of the five-billion litres of treated water Rand Water sends to water service authorities and municipalities, 2.3-billion litres is lost as the water is reticulated to consumers, Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister David Mahlobo explains.

Gauteng’s nonrevenue water of about 49.2% – almost half of its treated water – is mostly caused by leaks in its unmaintained