Joburg’s expected summer water usage will prompt restrictions to avoid dry taps: Mayor

Johannesburg residents should brace for water restrictions this summer as the city tries to curb high consumption and avoid a day zero.

On Friday, Parliament heard that despite growing demand brought on by population growth, residents are simply using too much water.

Mayor Dada Morero as well as officials from rand water and Joburg Water are before the water and sanitation committee to explain what they are doing to improve the city’s water crisis.

Morero said the high number of illegal connections, and the resistance to prepaid meters - are exacerbating the myriad problems.

Water and sanitation director general Sean Phillips said Gauteng residents are using water way above the daily international average per capita.

With a third of water supplied to Johannesburg residents being lost due to infrastructure leaks in a water scarce country, Phillips said this is unsustainable.

“There’s a need to reduce the average consumption per capita in all the municipalities in Gauteng, including Johannesburg.”

With members of Parliament (MPs) expressing concern that Johannesburg is reaching day zero, Mayor Dada Morero said water restrictions are on the cards.

“With summer coming, we are going to see high consumption, therefore we will have to implement certain levels, including level 1 restriction, to ensure we can push consumption down.”

Rand Water said it’s putting the maximum amount of water into the system every day as per licensing conditions, but the rate of usage is not allowing reservoirs to fill up.

Officials said the 1,700 million litres of daily usage needs to be reduced by at least 200 million litres.

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