Water cuts hit rich and poor in Tshwane

● For those fortunate Tshwane residents who have swimming pools, jumping in for a swim instead of taking a shower is the new normal in high-lying suburbs where taps have been dry for days.

“What do you do if you don’t have a swimming pool?” asked Lee Collins, from Moreleta Park. “You have to use pool water to flush the toilet and other things. I don’t know when the water is coming back. They don’t say anything. At least with electricity we know. We just wake up and there is no water.”

According to Daryl Johnston, member of the mayoral committee for utility services in Tshwane, the water shortages are a result of Rand Water restricting supply because of increased demand driven by high summer temperatures.

Rand Water warned about two weeks ago that its reservoir levels had dropped dramatically. In addition, load-shedding disrupts the city’s water pumping operations.

Suburbs affected this week include Mooikloof, The Hills, The Wilds, Elardus Park and some parts of Moreleta Park. In some cases there has been no water for at least four days.

Kim Borragerio, who lives in The Wilds estate, said she had been without water since Monday — but her neighbours across the road in the Olympus area are not affected.

“I want to know the reason — why are there only certain areas that are affected? You can take away my electricity but you cannot take away my water,” said Borragerio.

“I am trying to run a household. We don’t have any water tankers, so we are fully relying on the City of Tshwane. So when that water runs dry we’ve got nothing.

“Everything is being done out of the bucket, you have to scrape around, and whatever you use to bathe the children, you have to save and use for the toilet. We have really cut down. We are very fortunate that we have a swimming pool, so we’ve got water to flush our toilets.”

Rohema Alberts, of Moreleta Park, said her family had suffered water shortages for four days. Instead of washing, they swim. “For flushing, we take water out of the swimming pool.”

In Mamelodi, however, a four-day water shortage is nothing. In Ikageng Extension 3, residents say water supply has been a problem for more than a year.

Resident Laurence Malerotho said water sometimes starts flowing at 10pm

— but only for a few minutes. “We have been suffering for a year. We do not know why we are paying for the water while there is no water in our taps,” he said.

Malerotho said the community depends on water tankers at the community hall.

Paulos Moumakwe, 65, who has two tenants in his home, said that every day he collects about 10 water containers, each holding 25l, from the hall for bathing, cleaning and to do the laundry.

“It’s been a year that we have been living like this. We get water from the hall but the bill is increasing. Why does the bill not decrease? I would have been resting, but now I am busy pushing the trolley to collect water. I don’t even think I will vote. What is the use?”

The City of Tshwane said that the longer Rand Water had to limit its supply, the more likely it became that even more suburbs would be affected.

In an update on Friday, the city said Rand Water had warned it of a worsening situation for the eastern districts of Tshwane.

“A key challenge is that extensive load-shedding is affecting the pumping of water, which results in water outages, particularly in high-lying areas,” the city said.

Rand Water spokesperson Makenosi Maroo said: “Water consumption continues to rise and reservoir levels continue to decrease – because of high water usage. To stabilise and avoid the emptying of the reservoirs, Rand Water has introduced flow control management in the City of Tshwane. We are engaging our customers (municipalities) and advise them to encourage their customers (end users) to use water sparingly and also to conserve water.”