Water and Sanitation Chairperson Calls for Effective Communication on Water Shortage During Rand Water Maintenance

The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation, Mr Leon Basson, has called for effective communications to communities who will be affected by the planned maintenance of the Rand Water system.

“While we welcome the planned maintenance of the bulk system, it is important that communities are kept up to date on when they will face shortages and intervening plans to provide water,” Mr Basson emphasised.

The Chairperson also welcomed Rand Water’s proactive maintenance of the bulk system. The committee has consistently maintained that proactive system maintenance is essential to ensure the availability of water and reduce non-revenue water.

Despite this, the committee remains concerned that municipalities are not taking the initiative regarding the maintenance of the reticulation system. “It is unacceptable that municipalities are not maintaining their systems, which undercuts the maintenance by Rand Water. If the system is not maintained from source to tap, the value chain will continue to experience high non-revenue water. We reiterate the call for municipalities to come on board and invest in maintenance programmes for their system,” Mr Basson concluded.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.