Committed to ensuring supply

One day in Johannesburg, and already the tribe was being rebuilt, the house and soul being restored.” – Alan Paton

COMMITTED

Water security is one of the biggest challenges facing the City and the country as a whole. The City is the largest consumer from the Integrated Vaal River System. Although the City is currently implementing the Water Conservation and Demand Management Strategy, alternative water sources need to be explored, to avoid a situation where the demand exceeds the supply, as was nearly the case in recent times in Cape Town and Gqeberha.

Water scarcity across South Africa is a to ensuring real threat to stable water supply. Add to that a burgeoning SUPPLY urban population and ageing infrastructure, and it becomes clear that an effective water In terms of strategy with actionable managing the City’s water plans is vital for the services, key City of Johannesburg. programmes were implemented during the 2020/21 financial year to address the various challenges. These interventions include the below:

Review of water services by-laws

Since 2019/20, the City undertook a review of its water services by-laws. This project continued into the next financial year. The Mayoral Committee approved and noted the report and public participation took place in February 2021.

Review of the sanitation policy

This project comprised the review of the existing sanitation policy of the City of Johannesburg. The key thrust of this project were as follows: • to ensure that the City’s sanitation policy is aligned with the Water Services Act (No. 108 of 1997) and other relevant by-laws within the City – e.g. public health by-laws • to ensure that the City’s sanitation policy provides solutions that keep up with adaptable sanitation technologies and sectorial developments, as proposed in the 2017-2021 IDP and Growth Development Strategy 2040 objectives of sustainable and ecoefficient infrastructure solutions and green sanitation systems • to ensure that the City’s sanitation policy aligns with the national policies and regulations • to ensure that the City’s sanitation policy aligns with the National Development Plan, provincial plans and implementation strategies by

the Gauteng City Region Water and

Sanitation Forum. The review of the sanitation policy was completed.

Development of Water Security Strategy

The development of the City’s Water Security Strategy was necessitated by several consecutive outcomes of the Municipal Services Strategic Assessment for National Treasury Non-delegated Municipalities. The assessments have demonstrated that the assurance of water supply for the City of Johannesburg as a water services authority is not guaranteed and highly vulnerable. The outcomes indicated that the City has a 21-30% shortage risk, with more than 50% of source water quality showing a deteriorating trend.

The City’s Climate Action Plan has also highlighted water scarcity and increasing periods of drought as some of the key risks going forward and hence necessitated the development of a Water Security Strategy that supports adaptation and improved resilience of the City in the face of climate change. The purpose of developing its Water Security Strategy was to assess the potential of water-related risks and benefits that face the City of Johannesburg in terms of water availability and usage, while ensuring safe and reliable access to water supply and sanitation. It is intended as a long-term strategy that will provide the City and the residents of Johannesburg with a roadmap to improved water security. It will enable the City’s transition towards a more resilient, liveable and sustainable, water-sensitive City, in support of the Growth and Development Strategy 2040’s goals and outcomes. The benchmarking report for urban water security, utilisation and environmental sustainability has been produced and the final strategy is set to be finalised during this financial year.

Managing water resources

The City’s watercourses and dams are experiencing the negative impacts of urbanisation, which has resulted in encroachment into floodplains, a loss of wetlands and recharge areas, an increased run-off of stormwater from hard surfaces, and pollution from a wide range of sources. As a result, the City’s water projects for the previous financial year were aimed at addressing problems by improving the management of upstream drivers as well as undertaking the rehabilitation of stressed water bodies, improving river health and assisting with flood mitigation.

During the 2020/21 year, the City implemented the following water

COVID RESPONSE

Johannesburg Water

For Johannesburg Water, the Covid-19 pandemic placed additional strain on declining payment levels as well as the increased provision of services in marginalised areas where there is an ever-increasing demand for additional water and sanitation services. The integrated response to the outbreak saw the following initiatives implemented for FY 2020/21:

Two additional water teams and an additional sewer team were in place on day shift on Saturdays and Sundays to attend to water bursts to limit the time of water interruptions and attend to sewer blockages to limit pollution.

Additional water tanker services were deployed in high-risk areas such as informal settlements, homeless shelters and malls. This was done to promote hygiene in the areas to limit the spread of the virus.

The loading ratio per chemical toilet was improved from 11 households to 10 households per chemical toilet in the informal settlements. This was done to improve hygiene related to sanitation to limit the spread of the virus.

Deep cleaning and sanitising of ablution and standby facilities was undertaken at a total of 21 sites.