Johannesburg - Johannesburg has water restrictions at a time when the country is in the grip of a wet La Nina weather pattern, but drier conditions are on the way and that worries the experts.
Over the past two weeks a perfect storm of high stage load shedding, a heat wave and failing infrastructure has resulted in the implementation of water restrictions across the City. It had happened just months before, but again Johannesburg Water appeared unprepared.
“Dams can be full, but if the water infrastructure is in such a state that it can't transport water to the reservoirs and from there to your property, it is not going to make a difference," explained Professor Anja du Plessis, Associate Professor and Research Specialist in Integrated Water Resource Management, at Unisa.
“The major issue for me now, is that we have 95% water storage, and we are sitting with water restrictions.
“What is going to happen when we have an El Nino, a strong El Nino, with major below average rainfall, and our infrastructure is still dilapidated?” she asked.
An El Nino is forecast for later this year. This global far-reaching weather phenomenon usually brings drier conditions to southern Africa. Climatologists are still trying to ascertain the intensity this El Nino might have.
Johannesburg Water has blamed stage 6 load shedding for its inability to pump water into some reservoirs. It said there were also other challenges.
“The other hurdle Johannesburg Water faces is vandalism and theft of City of Johannesburg’s infrastructure.
“The cable theft that occurs during load shedding prolongs power outages, which ultimately affects Johannesburg Water’s ability to maintain a constant water supply,” Johannesburg Water said.
The water utility said it is are continually monitoring constrained infrastructure.
“Johannesburg Water has generators at some of the pump station installations which kick in during load shedding. With the current heatwave, people naturally consume more water”, it said.
However, Du Plessis believes that the water utility should have been better prepared for the arrival of the latest heat wave which was forecast a week before it arrived.
There was a similar scenario in October when the City found itself in a heat wave that moved in from Botswana.
“This should have been done the first time we told them, in I think it was September, October last year, when we said, fix the pumps, make sure you have a back up pump in place,” said Du Plessis.
It is a scenario, Du Plessis believes, where Johannesburg could find itself dealing with a Day Zero drought where there is a countdown to the date when the City would be without water.
Cape Town famously had to deal with Zay zero, but unlike Johannesburg this was brought on by a drought.
And while Johannesburg is in a time of plenty regarding the amount of water available, the future looks bleak as climate change is set to take hold.
The Lengau supercomputer at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Centre for High Performance Computing in Rosebank, Cape Town, has worked on future climate models for South Africa.
One of its predictions is a Day Zero drought hitting Gauteng, within the next decade or two brought on by climate change. To survive this drought the province will need to have robust water infrastructure and storage facilities, warn scientists.
But for the moment, Du Plessis says 41% of Joburg’s water is lost to broken pipes before it even gets to the consumer.
Water expert, Professor Anthony Turton, said there was a serious need for water reservoirs to be upgraded and built. “The reservoir we need today to deal with heat waves needed to be built ten years ago,” he said.
Johannesburg Water said that in an effort to maintain a steady supply of water it runs educational campaigns on social media and through community outreach programmes.
“We also receive communication from Rand Water whenever the water systems are under strain, which we then respond to proactively by raising public awareness through, for example, our water conservation campaign,” it said.
Turton, however,believes it is so bad it is now a failed system.
“This is completely unheard of, it is not a scarcity issue, it has everything to do with infrastructure.”