Many issues have been raised over Rand Water’s five-week extensive maintenance programme, following which many residents across Gauteng were left without water for days and weeks. Some are still facing supply challenges.

However, Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister David Mahlobo suggests that not doing water infrastructure maintenance will lead to a situation that could be worse than the electricity crisis, which resulted in prolonged loadshedding.

“If you do not do maintenance of infrastructure, the story around electricity, it will sound like a picnic,” he warned, noting that several complaints have been received accusing the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and Rand Water of “messing up Gauteng”.

Rand Water embarked on its extensive five-week maintenance project across Gauteng on June 22, wrapping up the programme on July 30.

The maintenance had been disruptive for many, with several areas across the cities of Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg and Tshwane experiencing critically low levels, leading to low pressure or no water supply, particularly in high-lying areas, while many taps across Gauteng ran dry for several days, as the systems worked to recover.

“Maintenance is a necessary and a painful inconvenience, but it is a short-term inconvenience,” he said, noting that the maintenance schedule for water infrastructure was critical, however, sometimes the challenge was the readiness of the institutions managing the maintenance itself.

Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina said that Rand Water had notified municipalities a year ago of the extensively planned maintenance programme, providing enough time for municipalities to prepare and get ready with alternative supply and back-up water.

“The way municipalities have managed their business, working with our agencies, it could be an area of improvement,” said Mahlobo, noting that during water-related shutdowns, the municipalities’ temporary provisions must be adequate.

“One of the biggest problems with our municipalities is that they have never built sufficient reservoirs . . . Where will they store water? If there is a problem in the system, you cannot store water for 48 hours, and if your water storage is always below 60%, what do you do?”

“The reservoir must be in a healthy state, and in a healthy state you cannot be below 60%. Further, most reservoirs in Johannesburg are leaking. However, [City of Johannesburg] Finance MMC Dada Morero has put a lot of money to build the reservoirs and build pump stations for the higher-lying areas,” he concluded.