Johannesburg weighs tighter water restrictions as supply falters
South Africa’s business capital is considering tighter water curbs as it battles to maintain ageing infrastructure and cope with increased demand.
The city of Johannesburg currently has level 1 restrictions in place, which prohibit consumers from irrigating their gardens and using municipal water to clean paved areas at their residences between 6 am and 6 pm.
Those measures are “not entirely effective,” Johannesburg Water Operations Manager Logan Munsamy said in remarks aired by broadcaster Newzroom Afrika. “We are looking at increasing that level of restriction, possibly to level 2 or higher.” The second tier of restraints prohibits using municipal water to irrigate gardens and top up swimming pools and bans using hosepipes to wash vehicles and clean pavements.
South Africa’s government is grappling with a worsening water crisis mainly caused by decades of underinvestment and poor maintenance. Rand Water, Africa’s biggest bulk-water supplier, warned in October that Gauteng province — the nation’s commercial hub that includes Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria — may run out of water unless the cities didn’t immediately curb consumption.
Residents in the western Johannesburg suburb of Westbury clashed with police on Wednesday over a water outage, while the Democratic Alliance party issued a memorandum to Executive Mayor Dada Morero stating that some households haven’t had supply for 70 days.
South Africa’s central bank said crumbling water, transport and other infrastructure poses a significant threat to the country’s financial system.
The collapse in water infrastructure is intensifying just as South Africa recovers from a years long energy crisis, in which the state power utility implemented electricity outages across the country for as long as 12 hours a day.
Comments
Research Reports
Latest Multimedia
Showroom
At SMS group, we have made it our mission to create a carbon-neutral and sustainable metals industry.
VISIT SHOWROOM
ISO-certified Condra manufactures overhead cranes, portal cranes, cantilever cranes and crane components: hoists, drives, end-carriages, brakes and...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
