Pretoria - The City of Tshwane has implemented stage 2 water restrictions as high-lying areas run the risk of draining reserves amid the persistent heatwave and load shedding.
MMC for utility services and regional operations, Daryl Johnston, said they were instructed by Rand Water to increase water flow control due to high usage and pumping challenges caused by load shedding.
The City has called upon residents and businesses to limit their consumption. Johnston said this was a serious situation for Tshwane, which was part of a water-scarce area with limited access to the resource.
“While Rand Water has not officially announced stage 2 water restrictions yet, the level of flow control and reduction by Rand Water to the City of Tshwane is higher than in October 2022 when stage 2 saw a 30% reduction. Currently, we have an over 30% reduction in supply from Rand Water, requiring urgent action to protect water security in our city.
“This past weekend, I asked residents to conserve water, but now I must appeal to all residents and businesses to please increase your efforts and start making real changes to your water usage. We need to work together to limit our water usage now so that we do not get into a worse situation.”
He said Rand Water’s reservoir levels were concerningly low, and unless consumers made a significant effort, the City may need to consider even higher levels of water restrictions to prevent widespread outages.
The City is working closely with Rand Water to manage water outages caused by high water consumption, load shedding and water restrictions.
However, this exceptionally high level of restriction meant that all consumers needed to work together to prevent areas from running dry.
Johnston acknowledged that the metro was aware of the state of water infrastructure with water bursts and vandalism in its water system. He said Mayor Randall Williams had made it clear that the repair and maintenance of water and electricity infrastructure was a priority.
“However, we are also still dealing with the reality of the City’s financial position which is still recovering from the R4 billion deficit that occurred during the Covid-19 lockdown …”
Pretoria News