Durban - Durban continues to lose hundreds of millions of litres of water every day, despite the city and province being in the grip of the fiercest drought in 30 years.
This costly wastage was revealed when the city’s finance corporate executive, Thabi Khuzwayo, briefed the human settlements and infrastructure committee this week.
Khuzwayo, who had been discussing the debt and rates collection for September, told councillors that Durban lost just more than 40% of its water in that month.
Since the drought started late last year, the municipality has implemented restrictions in severely affected areas, most of which are in the north of the city.
Early this year water and sanitation head Ednick Msweli detailed the grim state of water affairs in the city, saying drastic measures were needed to stop the rot. At the time he said the city was losing about 35% of its water. He told councillors the municipality would need about R300 million a year for the next five years to deal with the water loss nightmare.
Contributing to the figure were unmetered connections, connections not on the Coins billing system or not monitored; inadequate capacity (human and financial resources) and vandalism of infrastructure.
Msweli’s assertion came after the auditor-general revealed in January how the city was losing 237 million litres of water a day because of leaks. The losses apparently amounted to R602.6 million a year.
But months on, nothing has changed and, if anything, the situation appears to be escalating.
Khuzwayo said: “The average loss in distribution of water last month (August) was 37.7% and this month (September) it is 41.6%.”
Councillors in opposition parties are worried and are demanding that the reckless loss be curbed.
The DA councillor in the committee, Heinz De Boer, was startled by the revelation.
“We need some understanding as to what’s causing that loss. Secondly, it is unacceptable – at this stage of the water game. Things are very, very bad, as you would know. And to find that water loss has jumped up is a real concern. We need some explanation on that.”
Councillor Mdu Nkosi of the IFP, also a member of the committee, said such statistics indicated that the municipality was not keen to tackle the water loss crisis.
“Ednick Msweli (water head) presented brilliant ideas to tackle this. He requested funds for leaking pipes to be fixed or replaced … He told us that the issue of standpipes needed to be attended to. But it looks like the water crisis we speak of every day is falling on deaf ears.”
He complained that burst pipes were left unattended for weeks, especially in townships and informal settlements, “yet we are told that we have plumbers available 24 hours a day”.
A study released in 2013 on water use revealed how Durban’s loss had deteriorated in the past 10 years. The research was by Ronnie McKenzie, Zama Siqalaba and William Wegelin of WRP Consulting Engineers for the Water Research Council.
In 2005, Durban lost 29.1% of its water, 31.8% the following year and 33.5% in 2007. The city lost 36.4%, 38.9% and 37.5% in the following three years, respectively.
According to a December 2014 report in The Water Wheel magazine, 37% of all water supplied to South African municipalities was being lost.
Of the country’s four leading metros, Johannesburg was the worst offender, followed by Durban, while Pretoria fared better and Cape Town was losing the least amount of water.
The municipality issued a statement on Thursday saying it had intensified its drought and water conservation campaigns.
Municipal spokeswoman Tozi Mthethwa said the restrictions had been implemented “to ensure continuous supply is maintained”.
The municipality was sending water tankers to affected areas.
This week the key Hazelmere Dam, north of the city, dropped to below 27.5% of its capacity. Midmar Dam, which provides a significant amount of water to the city, is hovering just above 50%.
The Mercury