Recently, the City of Tshwane has been through a spate of water shortages due to Rand Water failures. The situation has now reached levels that are simply unacceptable. Rand Water is in crisis and this affects us negatively as they are a bulk supplier providing Tshwane with over 70% of its water supply.
This week, the City is yet again experiencing severe water shortages in Soshanguve and Mabopane, leading to some protest action by frustrated residents. In this regard, I would like to call for peace and calm.
We understand the community’s frustrations. The City is fighting to hold Rand Water accountable for its shortcomings, such as no formal communication regarding maintenance schedules.
Currently, Rand Water has embarked on maintenance work at its Hartebeeshoek Reservoir which supplies our Soshanguve L Reservoir. Rand Water indicated that they expect the maintenance work to be completed on Saturday, 22 July 2023.
Furthermore, Rand Water initially assured the City that the water flow to the Soshanguve reservoirs would be supplied via a bypass method but they have failed to deliver.
City teams are reporting no flow into the Soshanguve reservoirs and these reservoirs are effectively running empty. The City has now deployed water tankers as an interim solution while we wait on Rand Water to restore supply.
I have escalated our concerns with Rand Water to the Chairperson of their Board and I have also copied the Minister of Water and Sanitation in the correspondence.
I must also emphasise that these supply challenges are not related to our Rand Water debt, as we are not under any credit control action. We have a payment plan in place which we intend to honour.
We need Rand Water to also play its part, provide us with its telemetry data (reservoir levels), warn us of possible supply interruptions and communicate planned maintenance.