The water disaster within the eThekwini space is much from over, however a sliver of a silver lining has emerged, indicating that intervention methods are beginning to yield outcomes, for now. Photograph: Mlungisi Louw/Volksblad/Gallo Photos/Getty Photos
The water disaster within the eThekwini space is much from over, however a sliver of a silver lining has emerged, indicating that intervention methods are beginning to yield outcomes, for now.
Within the newest knowledge launch from the division of water and sanitation (DWS) on the town’s water efficiency, a transparent pattern is rising within the discount of actual water losses throughout the town, though day by day disruptions proceed, with some areas going for days and weeks with out potable water.
The town has beforehand mentioned that the “root trigger” of provide disruptions is demand far exceeding provide, given the speedy inhabitants progress, however has additionally admitted that leaks in eThekwini’s water distribution system stay an issue.
Final week, ratepayers teams from throughout Durban gathered within the metropolis to protest the disaster, threatening a charges boycott if the metro doesn’t repair its billing system, handle mismanagement of funds and expedite infrastructure restore.
The info that gives a sliver of hope for stretched ratepayers is contained in a month-to-month dashboard launched in collaboration with the Platform for a Water Safe eThekwini, a multi-stakeholder discussion board involving enterprise and civil society, in addition to authorities departments and companies.
Non-revenue water (NRW) is the catch-all time period utilized by municipalities to explain water losses that both end result from non-payment by clients, referred to as industrial losses, or from leaks, known as actual losses.
The town’s rolling 12-month common for NRW is 53.1%, that means that for each litre of water bought by the town, solely 46.9% is paid for by clients.
The determine is alarmingly excessive, however underneath strain from the DWS and civil society, the town managed to scale back its actual loss common from practically 60% in January 2024 to 43.5% in February 2025.
In accordance with eThekwini municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana, whereas a 12-month common is one of the simplest ways to trace enhancements, actual water losses on a month-to-month foundation declined from 41% in January to 38.2% in February.
She mentioned the discount in water losses is a part of an NRW discount plan.
Sisilana instructed the Mail & Guardian that the discount plan “contains varied initiatives, equivalent to addressing industrial losses; changing meters; enhancing metering accuracy and billing; putting in meters at unmetered websites; eradicating unlawful connections; proactive leak detection; strain administration; velocity and high quality of repairs; improved upkeep and infrastructure alternative”.
One stark admission discovered within the knowledge introduced on the dashboard is that whereas the July 2021 unrest and the April 2022 and April 2023 floods had some affect on total non-revenue water losses, it was marginal.
This contradicts claims by metropolis officers, who’ve repeatedly blamed these occasions for the present disaster. Simply earlier than the Covid-19 lockdowns, NRW was already above 50%.
In October 2024, the town was instructed by way of a directive from the DWS to scale back the amount of water it abstracted from the Umngeni-uThukela Water Board system by 8.4%.
The town had been exceeding its allotted quantity of 470 million m³ each year by 39 million m³ each year.
Sisilana mentioned that following the directive from Umngeni-uThukela to scale back day by day water use, the town had lowered its common day by day water purchases from 1 158 megalitres/day in 2023-24 to 1 128 megalitres/day in 2024-25, reflecting a discount of 30 megalitres/day.
The DWS has set a goal to decrease system enter quantity by 90 megalitres/day.
The municipality has been putting in water restrictors on client meters within the southern space of the town, the place in keeping with Sisilana, demand nonetheless exceeds out there provide “notably following the majority water discount applied by Umngeni-uThukela Water in October final 12 months”.
“The restrictors, which will probably be rolled out to roughly 550 000 related households, are designed to scale back total water demand by constricting water circulation whereas the town continues addressing bodily water losses,” mentioned Sisilana.
The water and sanitation division can be concerned within the collaborative Platform for a Water Safe Gauteng. In accordance with a dashboard launched in collaboration with the Gauteng group, non-revenue water losses in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni are at a 10-year common of 48.4%, 33.5% and 30.1%, respectively.
The info might be discovered at www.dws.gov.za/dashboard.aspx