Inhabitants of Gauteng may face further restrictions on water as storage levels have plummeted to a “concerning level”, and a crisis is bubbling with the looming onset of summer.
Speaking in an interview with Newzroom Afrika on Monday, Rand Water spokesperson, Makenosi Maroo, said the agency is urging municipalities to reduce water consumption. “If they don’t,” she said, “things will be different, things will be difficult”.
Additional restrictions may be a possible intervention.
“The water storage levels have significantly declined to a concerning level where we’re saying to municipalities, ‘You need to take a stand, you need to introduce restrictions, you need to take care of the leaks, or else we are going to face a crisis that we have been talking about’”.
The province has been experiencing level 1 restrictions since September. This means that between 6am and 6pm, consumers are prohibited from watering their gardens, and paved areas may not be washed with a hosepipe.
According to the bulk water supplier, “water storage levels throughout Gauteng Province have significantly declined due to excessive water withdrawals by municipalities, raising serious concerns”. Letters, meetings and an imbizo have yielded no results.
