MALAIKA MAHLATSI | Rand Water is fighting a losing battle in Gauteng: This is why

A week ago, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) authorised Rand Water to abstract additional water from the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) to help alleviate the ongoing water security challenges in Gauteng.

Over the past few weeks (and much longer in some areas), there have been devastating water outages across the province that have been devastating to households and businesses.

There have been sustained protests in many areas, with some lasting days.

Government has been trying to intervene with alternative water access sources, mainly water tankers. While these act as a crucial stop-gap measure to provide water to communities and are flexible enough to ensure water delivery in remote areas, they are not a long-term solution.

As communities are confronted with water outages, Rand Water, the largest bulk water utility in the country, which supplies water to Gauteng and various surrounding provinces, including the North West, Mpumalanga, and the Free State, has stepped in to aid municipalities in averting a situation that could become far worse.

The intervention by DWS has resulted in Rand Water being granted a temporary license with updated conditions that began in mid-February 2026 and will end on the 30th of June 2026.

This will allow the bulk water utility to abstract an additional 27, 200, 000 cubic metres over the five-month period, translating to 5139 million litres per day (from the base plus the additional 200 million litres per day). Upon the expiry of this temporary license, the water utility will revert to abstraction of 1,803,000,000 cubic metres (translating to 4936 million litres per day) until the end of September 2026, after which DWS will review the abstraction license.

Rand Water is currently abstracting approximately 5170 million litres per day, which is slightly above its allocation. About 210 million litres per day is supplied as raw water to licensed users such as Eskom and industries, for companies such as ArcelorMittal.

But most of this water, approximately 4960 million litres per day, undergoes purification at Rand Water’s treatment facilities and is distributed to municipalities, with 77% going to the three metropolitan municipalities in Gauteng, namely: Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.

Two of these metros, namely Johannesburg and Tshwane, are presently exceeding their allocations by 190 million litres per day and 185 million litres per day, respectively. The problem here is not simply that these municipalities are consuming above their allocations, it is the reason why this is happening.

There is an assumption that high levels of consumption are primarily the result of excessive utilisation by residents of Gauteng. But the high consumption in this context refers to the volume of water that is supplied to municipalities.

Gauteng’s municipal water crisis is driven by failing and aged water infrastructure, which leads to high levels of non-revenue water. Roughly half of the water in most municipalities, including Johannesburg, is lost to leaks, vandalism and theft.

Approximately 32.9% of the total water supply in Johannesburg is lost through physical leaks in aging infrastructure. It is important to understand that non-revenue water is not raw water that is abstracted from sources like the Vaal River.

It is for this reason that I argue that Rand Water is fighting a losing battle in Gauteng. No amount of additional abstraction that the water utility gets licensed for will resolve the water security challenges faced by residents of Gauteng because the problem is not and never has been insufficient water abstraction.

The problem is, and always has been, that our water infrastructure has deteriorated. This infrastructure requires significant capital for expansion and maintenance.

Malaika is a Geographer and researcher specialising in water governance, water equity and urban spatial development. She is a PhD in Geography candidate at the University of Bayreuth in Germany.