(Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s Gauteng province, home to the capital of Pretoria and commercial hub of Johannesburg, is on the brink of a water crisis as reservoir levels drop to critical lows amid ongoing heat-wave conditions.
Storage levels across the province have “significantly declined due to excessive water withdrawals by municipalities, bulk supplier Rand Water Services (Pty) Ltd. said in a statement.
The company raised concerns about the sustainability of the water supply, saying that it is operating at full capacity and cannot pump additional water into the system.
“The crisis we sought to prevent has now materialized,” it said, urging municipalities to take immediate action by repairing leaks, enforcing by-laws, and addressing illegal water connections.
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With the Johannesburg, Tshwane, and Ekurhuleni municipalities far exceeding consumption targets, Rand Water warned that communities could face severe shortages soon if municipalities do not act. The utility said that it cannot extract more water due to restrictions in its extraction license from the Department of Water and Sanitation.
Like South Africa’s power plants and transport networks, the country’s water-supply systems have deteriorated because of inadequate maintenance, a lack of planning for population growth, mismanagement, corruption and political infighting. Johannesburg Water Management Ltd., which distributes water in the city, loses 44% of the volume supplied to it to leaks and theft.
South Africa, one of the world’s most water-insecure nations, is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, with extreme weather events like droughts becoming more frequent.
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