The South African Human Rights Commission is investigating the water crisis in Gauteng, as residents prepare for three months of maintenance by Rand Water and Eskom in May, June and July.
SAHRC acting Gauteng manager Khululiwe Sithole said the inquiry follows numerous complaints to the commission concerning persistent and widespread water shortages, recurring service delivery disruptions, ageing infrastructure, governance failures and the deteriorating reliability of water supply systems across the province.
SAHRC probes water crisis
“The commission is concerned that the ongoing water crisis has severely impacted communities across the province, particularly poor and marginalised communities, residents of informal settlements, schools, health care facilities and social care institutions.
“The recurring disruptions in water supply raise serious concerns regarding the enjoyment of several constitutional rights, including the rights to dignity, equality, life, health care, a healthy environment and access to sufficient water,” he said.
Rand Water spokesperson Makenosi Maroo explained the maintenance scheduled for May to July at the Palmiet and Zuikerbosch sites was of critical electrical infrastructure essential for ensuring system reliability.
“Eskom and Rand Water have scheduled it for winter, which is traditionally a low-water-demand period.
“Rand Water has issued a 21- day notice to all affected municipalities, industries and direct customers. The notification is intended to provide all customers with sufficient time to implement contingency measures and minimise water supply disruptions to consumers,” she added.
Joburg Water and the City of Tshwane have issued statements to notify residents of the upcoming water outages.
Rand Water and Eskom plan maintenance
DA councillor of ward 85 in Pretoria East, Jacqui Uys, said it was unclear if the City of Tshwane has the capacity to ensure residents will have access to tankers.
“This is our next task – to ensure there’s a back-up plan,” she added. Uys said Pretoria East can expect to have little to no water from 29 May to 19 July.
“When the water supply is cut, water in your home will not be immediately off as the reservoirs still have water. Then, when the supply is opened, you won’t have water in your home immediately as the reservoirs needs to fill up.”
Uys said the goal was to have the water in the reservoirs last as long as possible to reduce the time without water.
“If you want to stock up on water, do it at least a day before supply is cut so the reservoir can fill up again – and then we use sparingly until supply is restored,” she added.
DA councillor in the west of Pretoria, Leon Kruyshaar, said the previous time the utility didn’t meet its own deadline.
WaterCAN warns recovery often fails
“It’s always the same, either they start late or they finish much later. They never keep to their own timeframes,” he added.
WaterCAN’s Ferrial Adam said: “Maintenance is very important, but they are saying people are overreacting and there’s no need to be afraid. Systems are so weak on the municipal sides that recovery becomes difficult.”
Adams said often a two-day outage becomes a five-day outage.
“They must be honest about the number of days people will be without water,” she added.
Adam said while Rand Water says they have asked municipalities to have more water tankers in place, it’s not enough.
