• Rand Water pleads for Gauteng residents to use water sparingly as its reservoirs are sitting at 40 percent capacity.
• It says the recent hot weather is to blame for increased water usage, which is further complicated by system outages.
• Water restrictions may be implemented if demand continues to increase.

The Gauteng water utility, Rand Water, has appealed to residents to “use water sparingly” in an announcement published on its official Twitter account on Monday. It added that if water consumption continues to increase it may be forced to implement water supply restrictions i.e. “water shedding.”

It says it has noticed an increase in water demand due to high temperatures which have caused water storage in its reservoirs to decrease “rapidly.” Further compounding the situation, it says, were multiple power failures in the Rand Water systems during the weekend of the 13th January.

“Currently,” it says, “the organisation is monitoring the water demand to protect the integrity of its systems.”

Rand Water spokesperson Makenosi Maroo told SABC news that its storage reservoirs were at 40 percent as of Wednesday.

According to Maroo, the Vaal dam is full but the utility still needs to extract water and prepare for it for human consumption. This process can be hampered by power failures on its systems.

Gauteng saw bouts of heavy rains for the last several months, which is why the dam remains full. The rain was so intense that City Power blamed Johannesburg-wide power outages on the wet weather adversely affecting its infrastructure.

Gauteng, and many other parts of the country, have been dealing with extreme temperatures since late last week. Gauteng Weather, the regional weather service, has forecasted that temperatures will continue to sit in their thirties at least for a further week, according to The Citizen.

Rand Water was forced to implement water restrictions near the end of last year due to persistent loadshedding affecting its operations, as well as damages to its infrastructure. South Africa is currently dealing with intervals of Stage 4 and Stage 5 loadshedding, until further notice.

With the chance of rain remaining low, and the increased temperature also putting added pressure on the country’s electricity grid as people use appliances like aircons and fans to keep cool during the day, water restrictions remain a real possibility unless something changes soon.

[Image – Patrick Pahlke on Unsplash]