Note to Editors: Attached please find a soundbite in English by Nico De Jager MPL in English here.
Gauteng’s water system is collapsing, while Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s government’s only solution appears to be to telling residents to use less water. The warning lights are already flashing red, while the Gauteng Provincial Government is sitting on its hands.
Across Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Emfuleni and the West Rand, ageing pipes, leaking networks, failing pumps, inadequate maintenance and dysfunctional municipalities are placing Gauteng’s water security under enormous pressure.
This is rapidly becoming Gauteng’s next load-shedding crisis.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng will engage the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Jacob Mamabolo, about the growing provincial water crisis.
The Department of Water and Sanitation’s figures show non-revenue water at approximately 49.8% in Johannesburg, 45% in Tshwane and 32.6% in Ekurhuleni.
In Johannesburg, almost one out of every two litres entering the municipal system generates no revenue, much of it disappearing through leaks, bursts and other losses.
Yet the response is increasingly to lecture residents about consumption.
Residents absolutely have a responsibility to use water wisely. But Lesufi’s government cannot conserve its way out of this one. He cannot fix decades of infrastructure neglect by asking residents to take shorter showers. He cannot repair a leaking water network with another press conference. He cannot run Gauteng on water tankers.
Lesufi’s political party has governed Gauteng for more than three decades. It cannot suddenly pretend that collapsing infrastructure is something that happened to it. It happened under its watch. For years, maintenance was deferred, infrastructure aged, water losses increased, and municipalities were allowed to deteriorate. Now ordinary residents are expected to absorb the consequences.
Enough is enough. Gauteng residents cannot be punished for failures of the provincial government and municipalities.
Gauteng has already learnt what happens when government allows critical infrastructure to deteriorate until crisis becomes normal. For years they had to live through loadshedding; now it is the water crisis.
On 4 November, Gauteng residents will have an opportunity to send a very clear message: we refuse to accept dry taps, broken infrastructure, and excuses as our future.
Lesufi’s government has had decades to fix Gauteng.
It is time to turn off the tap to leadership failure under Premier Panyaza Lesufi and elect the DA to government across all municipalities so that we can get Gauteng working again.
The DA has long called for a Gauteng Water Infrastructure Emergency Programme through the implementation of our Infrastructure Masterplan. This will help to accelerate pipe replacement, ring-fenced maintenance funding, professional management of water utilities, protection of critical infrastructure, aggressive reduction of water losses and transparent monthly reporting on infrastructure failures.