Crisis deepens: Is water being throttled in Joburg?

2026-02-16 - 13:26

Johannesburg’s water crisis has intensified with claims that Rand Water has reduced the city’s supply by approximately 200 million litres per day and that water authorities have throttled the top 30 bulk meters by up to 40%. The claims were made by DA MP Stephen Moore, following a briefing given to city councillors on Friday night. Moore revealed what he described as the scale of the crisis, stating that the network is constrained and throttling is underway. “We were told Rand Water is not supplying Joburg the normal volume but rather about 200 ML/day less,” he said. According to Moore, the top 30 bulk meters, which he said have been restricted by between 20 and 40%, account for more than 90% of the city’s consumption, explaining how quickly pressure can drop in parts of the network. Furthermore, Moore said the supply constraint appears to be temporary due to system strain and partly a longer-term effort to reduce Johannesburg’s usage. He cited numbers from the Commando system as evidence of the severity, noting that normal minimum flow is 2 500 cubic metres per hour, but between 9 and 13 February, flow dropped to 1 942 cubic metres per hour. “The reason given: Rand Water’s Meredale and Waterval reservoirs were low because overall demand is exceeding capacity,” Moore stated. Rand Water has not responded to The Citizen’s request for comment. Any update will be included, once recieved. ALSO READ: Waterless Joburg: Crisis deepens with broken pipes and broken promises Supply and infrastructure challenges According to Moore, Joburg Water is grappling with a massive repair workload, reporting more than 10 000 jobs per month. Moore described this as a scale problem, explaining that when the network is stressed, leaks, bursts and valve work become a daily churn. “Joburg Water says it has R150 million in outstanding payments to contractors, linked to cashflow constraints from the City. “That directly affects response times and maintenance momentum,” Moore said. High consumption bane of the water crisis Despite the crisis, Rand Water maintained on Friday afternoon that it continues to pump at full capacity in Gauteng. “High consumption across the system means recovery remains uneven, and some areas may experience temporary supply interruptions as the network stabilises,” the utility stated. Rand Water urged residents with water to use it sparingly to support equitable distribution to affected communities and ease pressure on the system. During a radio interview on Monday, Rand Water spokesperson Makenosi Maroo confirmed that reservoir storage levels have improved from the late 20s and early 30s to 38%. “Ideally, we want to be at 60% for us to say the system is recovering or is functioning optimally,” Maroo said. She emphasised that the problem is not a lack of water from the Rand Water system but high consumption. “Are we blaming the residents? No. We are stating facts. We are just supplying more than what our license allows, as Rand Water,” Maroo told talk radio station 702. Maroo revealed that 77% of the water Rand Water purifies goes to the three metros. Furthermore, she clarified that when referring to high consumption from a bulk water supply perspective, this includes both resident usage and losses through leaks in municipal reticulation systems. “This is where municipalities come in. They will identify precisely where this water is going. Obviously, it’s non-revenue water. It’s water that is not accounted for,” Maroo said. Aging infrastructure takes its toll Gugulethu Quma, Operations Manager at Joburg Water, painted a sobering picture of the city’s infrastructure challenges. While acknowledging that the entity is maintaining the infrastructure, Quma stressed that the current state of the infrastructure has aged significantly. He explained that the service life of infrastructure can only take utilities so far, and continuous capital investment is needed. He noted that the most constrained system in Johannesburg is the central Commando system, which supplies Melville, Sophiatown, Coronationville and surrounding suburbs. “That system is constrained, and it’s been a historic situation that we are trying to deal with, but it does get worse,” Quma said. Multiple issues impact high consumption Throttling, which is the operational intervention being implemented, such as closing systems at night and opening them during the day, is also taking a toll on the infrastructure. Quma explained that when an empty system is opened, it takes time to reach saturation, water takes longer to reach residents, and airlocks and bursts occur along the line. “While you are restoring the system, you also need to deal with those bursts. And now when you’re dealing with the emergency part, which means now we’re focusing on reactive maintenance that is brought by the system failures and the infrastructure failures, it’s difficult to make a focus on your preventative as well as your planned maintenance,” he said. The operational reality is stark. Most customers in higher-lying areas, predominantly, are not receiving water, while lower-lying areas are receiving water due to the dynamics within the system. Midrand, which had been severely affected since the previous week, has been restored, but Diepsloot is still struggling, and Randburg is also affected by high demand. National intervention The deployment of two national ministers to deal with the water crisis, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa and Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina, was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his State of the Nation Address on Thursday, 12 February. Quma acknowledged that ministerial efforts from Cogta and the Department of Water and Sanitation are assisting to facilitate short-term interventions and look at long-term solutions. ALSO READ: Dry tap woes in Joburg may have shocked Ramaphosa into action Licence flexibility and system recovery According to Moore, national discussions are underway to address production capacity constraints. He said Rand Water is in discussions with the Department of Water and Sanitation about licence flexibility or relaxation to allow extra production. On the issue of infrastructure maintenance, Maroo was emphatic that Rand Water has no challenges with its maintenance programme. “Besides the incident that we had, where it’s a power failure or outage, the Zwartkopjes incident that we had, over and above that, we don’t have challenges with regards to our maintenance,” she said. Metro consumption patterns reveal scale of overuse According to Rand Water’s weekly consumption reports, all three metros are consuming more water than what is allocated to them, though consumption patterns vary significantly. The combined weekly consumption for the three metropolitan municipalities shows actual consumption at 3 618 million litres per day as of 9 February 2026, significantly exceeding both the permanent allocation of 3 045 million litres per day and the temporary allocation of 3 431 million litres per day. The City of Ekurhuleni has demonstrated stronger consumption control than the other two metros. [In Graphs] 1/4 The Red line in the graph represents Rand Water’s consumption agreement with the Metros. The Blue line in the graph shows the consumption patterns/trends (up and down the red line) of the Metros. @CityTshwane @CityofJoburgZA @JHBWater @City_Ekurhuleni @DWS_RSA pic.twitter.com/mRd1Pk9KvL – Rand Water (@Rand_Water) February 11, 2026 READ NEXT: WATCH: Joburg in deep crisis as Pemmy Majodina sings ‘water song’ in Ethiopia