uMngeni-uThukela Water Chief Operating Officer Sanele Mazibuko, uMngeni-uThukela Water board chairperson Adv Vusi Khuzwayo, Chief Executive Sandile Mkhize and Group Financial Officer Thami Mkhwanazi . Picture Zainul Dawood
The uMngeni-uThukela Water (UUW) will continue with water curtailments to the eThekwini Municipality until September 2025, adding more problems to the water challenges faced by the City.
The UUW issued a directive to municipalities as a result of over abstraction from the Umgeni River and a plan of action was developed by the Water Services Authority (WSA) for implementation from October 2023 to October 2024. This was to reduce demands within the abstraction permit but eThekwini has been provided an additional 12 months of curtailment following a written request.
The uMgungundlovu District Municipality (UMDM) and Msunduzi municipality were also required to use 8.7% less water. The UUW said challenges were, however, experienced during the full implementation of the curtailment in Msunduzi and UMDM. In a report UUW stated that, at one point the whole city of Pietermaritzburg was without water for more than 24 hours as a result of a system collapse.
On 26 July 2024, eThekwini officials met with the UUW board where they were advised to detect and fix water leaks and implement measures to reduce average consumption per household. The UUW introduced water curtailment by reducing abstraction by 108 mega litres per day over 12 months, starting from 15 October 2024.
eThekwini Mayor Cyril Xaba said that in July 2024, the City abstraction was about 1500Ml a day when the contracted volumes were 1100Ml a day. The city was drawing about 25% more than the contracted amount.
To highlight the impending water crisis, the total bulk water System Input Volume (SIV) for the 2019/20 financial year was 362,046,895 (kl/y). However, in the same period, the recorded consumer sales volume of water on the Revenue Management System were averaged at 177,340,525 (kl/y), accounting for 51% water loss which equates to a R1.7 Billion loss in revenue.
In analysing the water loss, the 2020 eThekwini Water Balance Report attributed losses to illegal consumption, metering inaccuracies and leaks on mains accounted for.
A negligible percentage was attributed to unbilled authorised consumption (3,779,731 kilolitres per year), all together bringing the non-revenue water to 51% for the 2019/20 Financial Year.
In the last two financial years, eThekwini lost R4,03 billion in sales. Between the period 2017 and 2023, Xaba said cash collections in eThekwini for water services declined from 97% in 2017/18 to 67% in 2022/23. This coincided with the sharp increase of non-revenue water from 30% in 2017 to above 50% in 2022.
“This explains that there are serious leakages in our system, debunking a false narrative that there is an increase in water demand. Water losses directly affect the financial viability and sustainability of the service. It weakens the city’s ability to improve repairs, operations, infrastructure maintenance, investments and improving customer responsiveness, as well as the quality of service,” Xaba said.
Xaba said a Water and Sanitation Turnaround Strategy Business Plan will be presented soon. Xaba also suggested metering all informal settlements, standpipes, and bulk meters for rural areas, so that the City can account for every kilolitre.
Xaba has advised eThekwini officials to:
•Install meters at close to 100 000 unmetered properties;
•Replace dysfunctional meters and domestic meters and replace large commercial/industrial meters that have outlived their value;
•Ensure sufficient meter stocks;
•Improve effectiveness of metering and billing processes, including performance incentives and controls;
•Enforce credit control and debt management policy;
•Review and tighten meter reading contracts and contract management.
With regard to informal settlements and non-metered water supply the Chief Executive of UUW Sandile Mkhize said they have various Memoranda of Understanding with municipalities and they needed to get access to carry out work on municipal infrastructure.
“We partner with municipalities to develop business plans to get the relevant infrastructure grants. With regard to the unplanned influx of people to an area we have to increase our design and safety plans. We need to find out how much water is being used and conduct a study and analysis. If we can account for the water usage, it will be easier to deal with,” he said.
zainul.dawood@inl.co.za
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