Premier Lesufi tackles Gauteng's water supply issues with innovative solutions

As parts of Gauteng currently grapple with days without a consistent water supply, Premier Panyaza Lesufi has praised state-owned utility, Rand Water, and described it as doing exceptionally well.

Speaking during the first day of the oversight visit by Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Standing Committees on Public Accounts, the Auditor-General, and the Gauteng Provincial Legislature on Thursday, Lesufi said the province was hard at work dealing with supply challenges but did not have a water supply shortage.

"But I can tell you honourable members, we don't have a problem or shortage of water, we have a problem of three things - non-payment, illegal connections, and ageing infrastructure," he said at the Ferndale Recreation Centre in Randburg, Johannesburg.

Lesufi expressed his confidence that if non-payment, illegal connections, and ageing infrastructure were sorted out, the challenges of water in the province would be resolved.

"We are hard at work to deal with this. Fortunately, we have a state-owned enterprise called Rand Water that is doing exceptionally well, so it's assisting us to unlock and unblock some of these challenges so that we don't have a problem with water," he said.

According to Lesufi, the government has embarked on a massive infrastructure drive as the water infrastructure in Gauteng is ageing, having been set up in the 1880s.

"We went on a massive infrastructure improvement with our municipalities, and on the basis of that, we are ready to receive water from the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. The government has made a huge investment so that water will come through here," he promised.

Other interventions include finally agreeing to establish a special purpose vehicle between Rand Water and eMfuleni Local Municipality, which is going to assist that municipality in providing water to communities.

"We have established a war room that meets on Sundays with the national minister (of water and sanitation, Pemmy Majodina), including all municipalities, to address the issue of water.

Three weeks ago, with the president, we opened a new purification plant in (Rand Water's Zuikerbosch plant in Vereeniging) that will provide water," he said.

Lesufi added that he was meeting with Majodina and her deputies every month to attend to water issues in the province, as it is among his administration's G13 priorities.

City of Johannesburg chief financial officer Tebogo Moraka also promised that public-private partnerships (PPPs) in terms of water were at an advanced stage, with transactional advisors having been appointed by the National Treasury's Government Technical Advisory Centre and are already on the ground.

The PPPs will tackle non-revenue water, pipe replacement, and water reclamation. He said the Development Bank of Southern Africa has come on board to fast-track that process with its Infrastructure Fund, which offers blended finance for efficient execution of socio-economic infrastructure programmes and projects.

"We have now appointed transactional advisors so we can bring this programme to financial close. It's monitored by both us and the Department of Water and Sanitation through the Director-General Dr Sean Phillips," Moraka explained.

In addition, there are plans to expand the PPPs to include Joburg, as well as Cape Town and eThekwini, so that all three metros, when they enter the market, have similar strategies.

Moraka said the mission is to ensure the projects finish in the fastest possible time.

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