Use water sparingly as eThekwini battles supply disruptions

The message from the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), uMngeni-uThukela Water and eThekwini Metro is to use water sparingly as eThekwini battles water supply disruptions.

In light of ongoing water supply disruptions in eThekwini, the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Pemmy Majodina, and Deputy Minister David Mahlobo convened an urgent meeting on Sunday, February 23, with key stakeholders to address the matter.

The meeting included eThekwini Mayor Cyril Xaba, Trading Services Committee Chairperson Mdu Nkosi, uMngeni-uThukela Water Board (UUW) Chairperson Advocate Vusi Khuzwayo, and senior management from the involved institutions.

“The public is encouraged to play their part in reducing the risk of water supply disruptions. All water users in the municipality are encouraged to use water sparingly to reduce the average consumption of water per capita per day,” said Minister Majodina. “The 2023 DWS No Drop audit (which was released by DWS in December 2023) found this to be 298 liters/capita/day, compared to the international average of 173 l/c/d.”

The root cause of the water shortages is that demand for treated water in eThekwini has outstripped supply, the Minister said. This is due to rapid population growth and significant leaks within the municipality’s water distribution system. This has resulted in a situation where the city’s reservoirs become depleted, because water is being drawn out of them faster than the reservoirs can be filled.

This particularly affects water supply to high-lying areas and areas far from the reservoirs, because the water levels in the reservoirs drop to a level where they are insufficient to provide the pressure required to get water to the high-lying and far-away areas. This has been the main cause of water supply disruptions in Chatsworth, Umlazi and surrounding areas in the South, as well as Phoenix, Verulam, Tongaat and Ntuzuma in the North.

Further exacerbating the situation, a key UUW pipeline was shut down last month to allow the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) to upgrade the N3 highway, affecting water supply to Hillcrest and surrounding areas. The pipeline is expected to resume operations on February 27. Additionally, restrictions imposed by the DWS on raw water abstraction from the uMngeni Water Supply System (uMWS) have also contributed to supply challenges.

“To ensure a continuous supply of water to users even in times of drought, the DWS sets a limit on the amount of raw water that uMngeni-uThukela Water can abstract from the uMngeni Water Supply System (uMWS). Dam storage levels can fall rapidly when there is a drought, and it would therefore be irresponsible to raise the abstraction limit when the dams are full,” said Minister Majodina. “UUW has been exceeding the abstraction limit imposed by DWS, and consequently the department instructed UUW to curtail its abstraction in October 2024.”

During the December holidays, when demand for water peaked in eThekwini, DWS temporarily lifted this curtailment directive, but it was reinstated again in mid-January 2025. The Minister said various projects are underway to augment the amount of water in the uMWS.

“The raising of the Hazelmere Dam wall was completed in 2023 at a cost of R820 million and has doubled the amount of water that can be stored in the Dam,” the Minister said. “uMngeni-uThukela Water has completed a project to increase the capacity of the Hazelmere Water Treatment Works from 55 to 75 megalitres per day (75 million litres per day), at a cost of R135 million. The capacity of the treatment work will be further increased to 90 megalitres per day within the next three years, at a cost of R25 million.”

Mayor Xaba said eThekwini Municipality is also working on its own measures to increase the supply of water. He said the city is in the process of procuring two additional water re-use plants that will treat secondary effluent to produce potable water that meets the required water quality standards.

“It is also planning to implement two seawater desalination projects. All these projects will also be implemented through public private partnerships,” said Mayor Xaba. “There are several major projects to increase the resilience of its water distribution system to breakdowns and to enable it to manage peaks in demand better with fewer water supply disruptions.”

The meeting agreed on the following measures that will be implemented :

• The City Council will consider implementing formal water-use restrictions through by-laws

• Given the recent rainfall and improvement in dam levels in the uMWS, DWS will again temporarily lift the curtailment until April 23, 2025

• Weekly technical coordination meetings between the city, UUW and DWS will continue and there will be weekly meetings between the Mayor, the Minister and the Chairperson of UUW to review progress

• This work will be coordinated with the fortnightly meetings of the water and sanitation workstream meetings of the Presidential eThekwini Working Group

• The City and UUW will improve their communications regarding water supply disruptions to residents, including the causes of the disruptions and what is being done about them.