The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has approved an urgent water-use licence application from Rand Water to abstract additional water from the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) for four months.

The additional abstraction licence provides for a temporary increase of 200-million cubic metres a year to Rand Water’s current allocation of 1 803-million cubic metres a year, from February to June.

This will enable Rand Water to provide more water to help municipalities more rapidly stabilise their reservoir levels following severe disruptions that left many communities without water for weeks.

DWS sets a limit to the amount of water that Rand Water can abstract from the IVRS, the volumes of which are determined through long-term hydrological analysis.

In considering Rand Water’s application, DWS undertook a comprehensive hydrological yield assessment, considering the prevailing water supply constraints in Gauteng and the fact that the IVRS is already constrained and unable to accommodate permanent additional allocations.

The DWS said it would be irresponsible to allow Rand Water to permanently increase its abstraction, as this could result in dire water supply consequences during periods of drought.

“This is not a long-term solution to the water supply challenges being experienced in Gauteng. It is a temporary measure to assist the municipal reservoir levels to recover,” Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina said in a statement on Thursday.

Between January 27 and February 1, several electromechanical failures occurred at Rand Water’s Palmiet and Zuikerbosch pumpstations, as well as a huge pipe burst at the Rand Water Klipfontein reservoir, which caused a severe drop in the supply of treated water by Rand Water to the Gauteng municipalities.

Rand Water repaired the equipment failures rapidly, and by February 4 had returned to its full normal supply of 5 000-million litres of treated water a day to Gauteng municipalities.

However, the reduced supply of treated water during that period led to many municipal storage reservoirs in Gauteng being depleted, resulting in no water being supplied in many areas, particularly high-lying areas. Some areas, such as low-lying areas, have not experienced supply disruptions.

The situation was exacerbated by a heat wave in the province since early February, which resulted in increased consumption of water in areas which were still receiving water.

This further delayed the recovery of the municipal distribution systems.

While the municipal distribution systems have been gradually recovering, the reservoir levels in some areas in Gauteng are still struggling to recover.

While the short-term intervention was under way, Majodina warned that it was imperative that the municipalities continue to implement longer-term measures, including ring-fencing revenue from the sale of water and using these funds to reduce nonrevenue water, and upgrading their distribution infrastructure.

“They should also be entering into partnerships with the private sector to mobilise private sector funding for water infrastructure,” she continued.

As part of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s focus on attending to the national water crisis and Gauteng in particular, Majodina, her Deputy Minister David Mahlobo, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa and his Deputy Minister Dickson Masemola, as well as Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi and Gauteng Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Jacob Mamabolo, agreed on a range of measures to stabilise the situation.

These include accelerating the fixing of leaks in municipal distribution systems, including the replacement of old leaking pipes, by the municipalities; the removal of illegal connections by the municipalities; and accelerating municipal water and sanitation capital works programmes, particularly the construction of additional reservoir storage capacity and pumping capacity.

Further measures include load shifting, which entails moving water volumes between stable and critical systems to balance the system, resulting in reduced pressure in stable areas, but not resulting in supply disruptions in stable areas, and controlled throttling to manage reservoir outlets to build storage levels overnight.

In addition, the measure comprise the approval of level 2 water-use restrictions by the municipal councils, and enforcement of the restrictions, particularly in high-use areas, as well as improved communication between the municipalities and the public.

Implementation of these measures is being coordinated by technical teams from DWS, Rand Water and the municipalities, led by the directors-general of DWS and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

“There is daily detailed coordination between Rand Water and the cities in Gauteng. Rand Water has also offered to assist the municipalities to implement the above measures and has been assisting the City of Tshwane to refurbish two of their water treatment works and to reduce the leaks in municipal distribution systems in priority areas in the city,” Majodina noted.

Meanwhile, the longer-term solutions to the water crisis lie in the reforms under way through the Water Services Amendment Bill, which is currently before Parliament, as well as the Reform of Metropolitan Trading Services Programme being implemented by National Treasury.

“These reforms are aimed at ensuring that revenue from the sale of water is ring-fenced for the water function and that the providers of water services at municipal level become professionally managed entities with single-point accountability.”

Other policy measures that have been put in place by DWS include that municipalities should insource water carting or tankering, and that there should be increased but sustainable use of groundwater. Where necessary, national government will also be mobilising technical support to assist municipalities in Gauteng.