Most parts of South Africa's interior experience a hot and dry October. And it started raining later than usual. So it was no surprise that alarm bells were rung when it was announced that the Lesotho Highlands Water Project's tunnel system, which supplies water to some of South Africa's largest cities, would be closed for two months for maintenance.
Those concerns were heightened by appeals by local authorities in Gauteng, the country's economic hub, to use water sparingly. Residents had already seen recent examples of Cape Town's water crisis.
Gauteng and surrounding areas receive water from 14 interconnected dams in the integrated Vaal River System. Some of these are located in South Africa's mountainous neighbor Lesotho.
Lesotho's dams supply more than 25% of the water supplied by the integrated Vaal River system. A permanent loss of supplies from Lesotho would therefore certainly leave millions of South Africans short. But this long-term planned maintenance will simply store water in Lesotho's dams for several months and release it later. Far greater risks are emerging in the integrated Vaal River system that need to be addressed.
Despite the current heatwave, the Gauteng provinces of Johannesburg and Pretoria are in no real danger of imminent water shortages. Experts recently concluded that no water use restrictions were needed in the Vaal River system this summer. This was followed by a detailed review of the status of the dams in the system mapped against likely future rainfall patterns and current consumption levels.
However, there are issues that residents of Gauteng and surrounding areas should be concerned about. Specifically, are the authorities responsible for managing water supplies keeping their eye on the ball? And does it ensure that the plan to protect the state from shortages over the next six years will be implemented on time?
What lies ahead?
Concerns are further heightened by a number of well-founded reports of mismanagement at the Ministry of Water and Sanitation, which is responsible for monitoring water security. And experience with power supply downturns has shown that poor management of critical services such as water and electricity can easily lead to a supply crisis.
So where should concerned water users look for problems?
Dropping water levels in dams are not a problem. Dams are built to store water during the rainy season and pump it out when needed. It rises during the rainy season and falls during the dry season. Otherwise, you don't need them. What people should check is whether the authorities are monitoring the situation.
In the case of the Vaal River system, it is reassuring that Water and Sanitation Authority engineers have conducted an annual operational review to determine whether restrictions are necessary. This step ensured regional water security during the 2015/2016 drought.
A more important question is whether the supply infrastructure for an integrated Vaal River system is adequate.
The Ministry of Water and Sanitation has plans for interventions to ensure adequate supply of all major water systems, including the Vaal River system, until 2040 and beyond. But we need to translate plans on paper into infrastructure and change the behavior of water users. There are good reasons for concern in this area.
The plan anticipates the need to expand the Vaal River system. It has long been recognized that the most economical source for new water supplies is additional dams in Lesotho.
There is an urgent need for action now. By 2012, the Lesotho and South African governments decided to build the Polihari Dam. But progress has repeatedly been delayed. One delay reportedly occurred as a South African minister attempted to redesign the procurement process.
So by the time the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority received permission to begin design work in 2017, the project was already five years behind schedule.
Recent reports from Lesotho suggest that there have been attempts to circumvent procurement procedures, despite warnings from authorities that a formal tender process must be followed. And although preliminary infrastructure construction has already begun, South African authorities have not delegated the decision-making process and are taking months to address practical project management issues. There are also concerns that past mismanagement at the water and wastewater authority could make it difficult to obtain loans to fund major construction work.
Delays at this stage pose a major challenge. Late penalties can cost South African water users millions of rands per day if contractors have to stop work while awaiting decisions on design changes. To make matters worse, delays extend the period during which the region is at risk of shortages in the event of a drought.
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Rand Water, which supplies water to most municipalities in the region, has a license to withdraw 1.6 billion cubic meters of water annually from the Vaal River system. The remainder of the system's supply will go to power utility Eskom, as well as industry, mining and agriculture.
Gauteng's population is growing by 3% every year as people flock to the area to find work. The fastest growing water use sector is municipal domestic water supply.
However, the availability of water from the Vaal River system will remain unchanged until the Polihari dam is completed. This means that from now he will need to reduce his per capita water use in this region by 3% annually by 2026 to avoid a water crisis in the event of a drought. .
Over the next six years, all municipalities must keep consumption static, no matter how rapidly the population grows. Rand Water has launched a special “Project 1600” to enforce these restrictions.
Of course, the feared drought disaster may never occur. If he gets good rain every year between now and 2026, the nation might be able to get by without tightening its belt. However, nature can have a profound impact in unexpected ways. Proper water management is not about disaster management, but about disaster risk reduction.
There are plans to provide enough water to meet the needs of all major cities in South Africa until at least 2030. As with the Vaal River system area, the key is to act on these plans in a timely manner.
Ensuring water security requires changing people's behavior and building and properly operating new infrastructure. And this can only be achieved if political leaders take the initiative to avoid further delays.
This article is the first in a series examining South Africa's water issues
