The City of Tshwane is calling on all residents and businesses to reduce water consumption to save the city’s reservoirs from running dry and thus resulting in water shortages and subsequent prolonged water supply interruptions.
The City of Tshwane has been cited as one of the high-consuming metros in Gauteng. Rand Water pumps 80 million litres per day to Tshwane, which is 18% more than the city’s permitted limit.
Despite this over the limit water intake, the city is experiencing challenges with some of its reservoirs, due to the high level of consumption by Tshwane customers.
“In the statement released, the City of Tshwane said that in the past few weeks, consumption by both businesses and households had increased significantly, resulting in a steep decline of the city’s overall reservoir storage capacity.”
“It is against this backdrop that the City of Tshwane has to comply with a request by the National Department of Water and Sanitation for municipalities in Gauteng to put in place tougher water restrictions and to ensure that they are enforced,” said City of Tshwane.
“Residents are further reminded that the Level 1 water restrictions that were imposed previously in line with the Water Supply By-laws, were never withdrawn and, are therefore still applicable,”
“The City of Tshwane will impose fines, restrict water supply or disconnect water supply to consumers who do not comply with the water restrictions,”
“The level at which our customers are consuming, water restrictions are inevitable and are the only viable option to save the city’s distribution network from collapsing”
“The City of Tshwane further said that it must be emphasized that if the current customers’ consumption behavior does not change, the city might have to adjust the water restrictions to level 2 or higher. This would have financial implications for consumers due to associated changes in water tariffs, and might also result in water supply interruptions.”
