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Tshwane water crisis: Mayor and Rand Water CEO meet to discuss ‘supply challenges’

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Rand Water met with the Tshwane mayor on Monday to discuss water issues.


Rand Water met with the Tshwane mayor on Monday to discuss water issues.

PHOTO: Papi Morake, Gallo Images

  • City of Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams met with the Rand Water CEO to discuss ongoing water outages.
  • The city has suffered water cuts for at least a week.
  • The officials tackled water challenges in high-lying areas during the meeting.

City of Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams said he had “constructive engagements” with Rand Water on Monday night amid the ongoing water crisis in the metro.

The Tshwane metro has suffered water cuts for at least a week as water reserves at Rand Water remain low because of power outages and increased consumption due to the hot weather.

In a statement on Tuesday, Williams said the meeting with the bulk water supplier was aimed at addressing the water challenges in high-lying areas.

“I was able to engage constructively with the CEO and board chairperson of Rand Water [Ramateu Monyokolo] on the water supply challenges that are plaguing Tshwane.”

Also at the meeting were the City’s water management and technical teams.

He said:

Our focus was on the inability to get our high-lying water reservoirs to recover in areas such as Soshanguve, Mooikloof, Grootfontein and Laudium.

“These areas have been grappling with little to no water for over a week. I welcomed the constructive commitment from Rand Water to ensure that our technical teams work together to better manage the water supply to these areas.”

Williams said reservoirs began to recover due to increased water pressure later on Monday evening.

He added that the City would engage with Rand Water on the quota allocated to Tshwane.

“Out of the three metros in Gauteng, the City of Tshwane receives the least amount of bulk water, a matter which we intend to interrogate further, particularly because Tshwane is the largest city in the province in terms of geographical size and has a significant manufacturing sector, which both drive water consumption.”

He added:

Nonetheless, we are fully committed to working with Rand Water to better manage our water demand and consumption.

In response to the issue of water allocation, Rand Water spokesperson Makenosi Maroo said the entity supplied water according to what the municipalities said they needed.

“We get the demands from the municipalities, which indicate how much bulk water is needed. They give us the figures. They may need to go back to the drawing board to see how much water they need.”

She said the city had already exceeded its demand.


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