The temporary shutdown of the supply from Lesotho is not the problem
Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.Katse Dam in Lesotho is the largest of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project reservoirs, with a storage capacity of nearly 2-billion cubic metres..
She says, “It is not unusual for the level of the Vaal Dam to be around 40% at the end of the dry season. There is a difference between a meteorological drought, which is the result of rain not falling in the rainy season, and an institutional drought, which is the consequence of water management failures. Johannesburg is suffering from the latter.”
But Johannesburg is using more water than is wise. Rand Water, which supplies bulk water to Gauteng Province, has exceeded the volume of water it is licensed to provide to Gauteng’s municipalities every year for the past six years. The utility is licensed to supply the province with 1,600-million cubic metres a year, but exceeded this by 193 million cubic metres in 2023/2024.
“It is important that people become more water wise and the department faces a delicate balancing act of putting pressure on citizens and local water authorities to change their ways, on the one hand, and on the other to avoid creating the impression that there isn’t enough water around to meet needs.”
To solve the problem, the government looked to the waters of the distant Vaal river, completing an impoundment called the Vaal Barrage in 1923, and the much larger Vaal dam in 1938. Today, all of Johannesburg’s treated water comes from the Vaal dam. “The fact that it is pumped water means that it is expensive water, so it is kept up there for emergency use only,” he said.
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