Pretoria - Large chunks of the eastern suburbs, Soshanguve, Atteridgeville and Lotus Gardens, Waverley, Centurion, Garsfontein and Clubview were on Tuesday named among Pretoria city’s notoriously high water users.
Mayor Solly Msimanga said residents of these areas continued to use water irresponsibly in the face of shortages and the restrictions imposed on the city by Gauteng water provider Rand Water.
“They continue to fill their pools, irrigate their gardens and water golf estates throughout the day,” he said.
Fines had been imposed on 40 people in the three months since the restrictions were put in place, and 120 other complaints were with the metro police.
“These are consumers who have transgressed the water restriction rules,” said Msimanga, who was giving an update on the current water situation. Most of those guilty of excessive water usage came from affluent areas. They were found to have contravened the restrictions in several ways.
“Some are from these high water consumer areas,” the mayor said. Some parts of the city were still experiencing low pressure and unstable water availability. Among them were high lying areas of Laudium, Atteridgeville and Soshanguve.
“We are in the process of installing pressure pumps to get the water up the mountains,” he said. Tankers were dispatched to make water available to those areas when they experienced interruption, but those instances, he said, were far and few between.
He said the recent rains had been good for the Tshwane dams, with most of them at satisfactory levels. “We have 90% of them at more than 70% capacity, and only three are less than 50%,” he said.
City residents had generally done him proud in their water saving efforts, helping the metro to save 15.8% water, more than the 15% imposed by government and Rand Water, the mayor said.
“We can start celebrating, and if we continue to save like we have then we will turn the corner in a few weeks’ time.”
Infrastructure MMC Darryl Moss said the recent heavy rains would not make a huge difference on the current status of water shortages.
The water had not fallen as much in the Vaal Dam system, which provided the city with 70% of its water.
The city generated 30% water from its own resources.
“We have had three years of drought; three days of rain won’t even begin to solve our problems,” Moss said.
And thus the city had taken serious steps to curb the over use of water, Msimanga explained.
“We are installing 3 000 flow restrictors in neighbourhoods with high consumption.”
These would be attached to the reservoirs providing water to areas with notorious users and where the demand was high, the mayor said. The city officials also spoke of other water supply problems, and said sabotage was a big problem, which had led to contamination of reservoirs and interrupted supply in recent weeks.
Moss said the theft of pipes and damaging of infrastructure had to stop if water was to be provided continuously. “We are calling on everyone to help us stop the vandalism.”
Constructors digging up under the surface also contributed to water interruption. “They damage pipes and simply walk away,” said Msimanga.
He said the introduction of a R200 000 holding deposit would make sure Tshwane had the funds to repair broken pipes damaged by constructors. “The serial offenders are people laying down optical fibre.”
Last week, a company damaged pipes in Laudium and left, and by the time the city was informed, thousands of litres of water had gone down the drain, he said
He also spoke of high-level preparations to prepare the city for any summer storms and predicted flash floods.
“Drainage systems are being cleaned, problems in the informal settlements being sorted and leaks all over being fixed,” he said.
Stormwater systems, trenches and rivers were being unblocked and cleared. “We are also in talks with Ekurhuleni to ensure water coming downstream carries nothing damaging,” he said. Disaster management teams were also geared up to step in if people lost property, he added.
But Moss said businesses were also being roped in to save water. A forum with the top 50 water and electricity users had been formed and meetings would start next month.
He accompanied the media on a tour of the city’s Rietvlei Water Treatment Plant to demonstrate the technology, hard work and big investment that had been put into the production of drinking water.