The Monthly Dashboard for a Water Secure Gauteng shows that while overall water consumption across the province decreased during December, by January demand had surged significantly in the province’s three metropolitans: Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane.

Further, water-use levels remain above water-use efficiency (WUE) targets in all the province’s metros and municipalities except Ekurhuleni, Merafong and Rand West.

In December, the average daily total provided by Rand Water was 4 152-million litres. While this represents a decrease from 4 235-million litres in November, it exceeded the WUE target of 3 604-million litres by 548- million litres, or 15%.

In the last week of January, Rand Water reported that, combined, the cities of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane consumed 3 744-million litres of water a day, up from 3 602- million litres a year earlier.

According to the water utility, there was a steady increase in water consumption throughout January, after recording consumption of 3 498-million litres a day on December 29.

The Monthly Dashboard for a Water Secure Gauteng for December shows that the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) used 1 016- million litres of water daily, six-million litres below its WUE target of 1 022-million and a reduction compared with the 1 040-million litres a day monthly average reported in the November edition of the dashboard.

During January, the city’s consumption increased to 1 053- million litres a day – its highest since February 2025.

This, however, is a decrease on the 1 060-million litres a day reported a year ago.

The CoE mostly maintains use in line with its WUE target. On December 15, for example, it recorded use of 958-million litres a day.

The monthly dashboard shows that while water consumption in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) reduced from a monthly average of 1 745-million litres a day in November to 1 717-million litres in December, the metro still remained 361-million litres above its WUE target of 1 356-million litres a day.

According to statistics provided by Rand Water, this has increased to 1 794-million litres of water a day. While the city consistently uses above 1 700-million litres of water a day, this is the highest consumption level over the past year.

During December, consumption in the City of Tshwane (CoT) was 846-million litres a day, 180-million litres over its target of 666-million litres, but a decrease from the 875-million litres a day monthly average during November.

By the end of January, water consumption in the CoT had also surged, reaching 897-million litres a day, up from last year’s 836- million litres a day.

The CoT nearly reached its agreement levels in July 2025, when it reduced water consumption to between 686-million litres a day and 698-million litres a day during two weeks in July. However the metropolitan has consistently used above 800- million litres a day since.

Meanwhile, the dashboard indicates that Emfuleni used 303- million litres in December, which, while a slight decrease from the monthly average of 304-million litres a day in November, was still 64-million litres above its target of 239-million litres.

Mogale City consumed 106-million litres a day in December, a decrease from 109-million litres a day the month before, but still above its target of 93-million litres.

Merafong recorded an increase from 41-million litres a day to 44-million litres, remaining below its target of 86-million litres, while Lesedi decreased its use to 23-million litres – on target – from 24-million litres a day in November.

Midvaal maintained consumption of 34-million litres a day, above its WUE target of 28- million litres a day, while Rand West also maintained consumption at 62-million litres a day, remaining below its WUE target of 91-million litres.

Meanwhile, nonrevenue water (NRW) – the volume of potable water distributed for which the municipality receives no income – for CoJ remained high at 48.7%. CoE had NRW of 30.3%, while Tshwane’s was 41.9%.

The target for municipalities in South Africa is less than 25%.

Physical losses, which include leaks and overflows on storage infrastructure and on service connections outside private property boundaries, for the cities of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane were 26.3%, 19.8% and 32%, all above the target of 15%, while total losses amounted to 36.5%, 26.8% and 39.4% for the respective metropolitans.

Meanwhile, the overall storage of the four main strategic Rand Water reservoirs, namely Palmiet, Mapleton, Eikenhof and Zwartkopjies, was at 28.3% in December.

Palmiet’s storage was at 13%, Mapleton’s at 42%, Eikenhof’s at 15% and Zwartkopjes’ at 30%.

Palmiet accounts for 59% of the total storage volume, Mapleton 23%, Eikenhof 11% and Zwartkopjes 7%.

The overall target reservoir storage level is 60%, at which point the system has sufficient pressure to feed the entire area, and water outages are less likely.

The system has been below 60% for three weeks.

An incident at the Zuikerbosch pump station on January 27 exacerbated the low storage, but from January 29 all pump stations were operational and the main systems had recovered.