Taps Remain Dry, Despite Ministerial License

Statement by Stephen Moore MP and Helen Zille:

The Democratic Alliance (DA) can reveal that Rand Water is not increasing its water pumping to Gauteng metros after the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) granted Rand Water a temporary licence last week to increase its abstraction from the Vaal Dam.

This is a serious failure by Rand Water, as Johannesburg faces a full blown water supply crisis.

The DA was pleased that Rand Water was permitted to extract increased water from the Vaal Dam, after the DA demanded that the Department increase Rand Water’s licence on 11 February, and to which it acceded on 19 February. Rand Water is permitted to draw and pump more water to residents, but it is simply failing to do so.

While Rand Water has capacity to pump more than 5 000 million litres daily and has claimed to be doing so, its own weekly graphs show it is pumping 266 million litres less a day. Further, 466 million fewer litres of water are actually reaching residents taps.

Considering Rand Water has the means to help residents, it is deeply disappointing that Rand Water continues to fail. Rand Water has not been adequately communicating with residents and is not pumping enough water.

Meanwhile, residents were promised by national and provincial governments that there would be a decisive surge in supply.

To be clear: municipalities remain the core cause of this crisis, through catastrophic leaks, poor maintenance, and an inability to control demand and fix infrastructure.

National Government has enabled more abstraction, but now Rand Water is sitting on its hands in a time of severe water delivery crisis.

The DA demands that Rand Water immediately provides a clear explanation on why it has failed to pump more water; a plan to ramp up capacity and an operational plan with metros to ensure additional water prioritises high-lying and end-of-line areas.

Gauteng cannot afford more press statements and dashboards while taps run dry. The licence was expanded to stabilise the system in a crisis, now Rand Water must use it.