HIGH-WATER CONSUMPTION AND LIMITED SUPPLY

A TOUGH BALANCING ACT FOR JOHANNESBURG WATER

South Africa is no stranger to droughts and extreme weather conditions which impact on water scarcity and conservation.

Linked to the scarcity, is the rising of nonrevenue water (NRW) to unsustainable levels in Johannesburg. This is due to several factors, such as, non-payment, leaks, infrastructure vandalism and theft. While addressing the challenging issue of high-water consumption, the focus for the water entity is also firmly on water demand management.

Water demand management can be described as the comprehensive reforms and actions to optimise existing water supplies. The sustainable management of water supply constitutes one of the key challenges for many municipalities across the country, this is especially true for the City of Johannesburg (CoJ).

Through its monitoring systems, Johannesburg Water has picked up an unsustainable increase in water demand, this renders Water Conservation and Water Demand Management (WC/WDM) a strong priority in Johannesburg, to ensure a continuous and sustainable water supply and to avoid putting strain on the City’s water supply systems due to high water demand outstripping supply.

Water availability is presumably easy in theory because it is based on balancing supply to need. But this water needs to come from somewhere. The levels of water use in the Johannesburg are unsustainable.

The factors that influence water demand are as follows:

• Population growth and developments.

• Water usage habits of the general population within the city.

• Climate change.

• Industrialisation and commercial water use.

• Technical and non-technical losses.

• Ageing of infrastructure.

• Operational challenges such as electrical failures and load shedding which impacts the bulk supplier and municipalities

Theft and vandalism of infrastructure also plays a huge role in hampering reliable and uninterrupted water supply to residents and businesses. The City of Johannesburg loses millions of rands a year to theft and vandalism of infrastructure and assets.

Water demand is projected to outweigh supply by 2030, thus, it is important for Johannesburg Water to ensure that it reduces its future demand. Even though water demand has reduced over the past few years, from 309 litres per capita per day (l/c/d) to 267 l/c/d, efforts need to be intensified to progressively reduce it to the norm of 175 l/c/d, as stipulated in the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan.

To mitigate the losses and improve the reliability of water supply, Johannesburg Water has in place short, medium, and long-term plans to alleviate water supply issues. The Entity has set out to reduce water demand and invest in alternative water sources and tools for water conservation, through its Water Conservation and Water Demand Management strategy. Addressing water scarcity and conservation remains at the centre of development plans of Johannesburg Water.

Johannesburg Water has also established a team to investigate the increase in NRW which includes a detailed review of the reduction in the billing volumes and enhancing the current meter reading system to enable a zonal tracking of the revenue water and non-revenue water.

Plans are in place to install advance metering for large water users and STS prepaid meters for households.

The water entity has set out to reduce water demand and invest in alternative water sources and tools for water conservation, through its WC/WDM strategy. However, it is important to highlight that infrastructure deterioration is occurring at a faster rate than the city can invest in. However, addressing water scarcity and conservation remain at the centre of development plans of Johannesburg Water.

The uncertainty of future trends in climate, economic activities, population growth, water demand and infrastructure investment needs, means Johannesburg has a to do a balancing in addressing high-water consumption which is exceeding supply.

The entity will work on improving billing and recovery rates and encouraging the reduction in water consumption. The everyday conservation efforts of Johannesburg residents and businesses in the city will help in addressing the unsustainably high-water consumption particularly during the warmer months. 