The Democratic Alliance is deeply alarmed by the rapid collapse in Rand Water’s system storage, which has fallen from around 55% to just below 40% in under a week. This has triggered throttling across the province, leaving communities without water and exposing how vulnerable Gauteng’s water supply system has become.
Reports from across the province confirm the scale of the crisis:
- Merafong has been particularly hard hit, with Carletonville essentially without water and large parts of Fochville experiencing severe outages.
- In Johannesburg, areas including Brixton – where the stalled tower and reservoir project should have added resilience – are experiencing reduced flows.
- In Ekurhuleni, Bedfordview residents are facing outages, despite the completion of reservoir repairs that were meant to protect supply.
- Tshwane is also reporting widespread pressure drops and outages as the system buckles.
I have written to the Chairperson of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation to request that he summon both the Minister of Water and Sanitation and Rand Water to urgently account to the Committee. They must explain what steps are being taken to stabilise supply, protect Gauteng communities, and ensure that the system can withstand the increased demand of the coming summer months.
This crisis is being made worse by the failure of municipalities to complete vital water resilience infrastructure such as reservoirs and towers. These projects are supposed to provide a buffer during high demand, but delays, stalled construction, and mismanagement have left communities dangerously exposed.
With temperatures now climbing as Gauteng moves into late August and spring, demand will only rise. If this is the state of the system now, Gauteng faces a catastrophic summer of water insecurity.
The people of Gauteng cannot afford for government to continue on a “business as usual” path while water runs out. Urgent intervention is required now to prevent a full-scale collapse.