The water woes that have hit South Africa’s most populous province are not a result of water scarcity and drought, but rather a surge in demand that went well beyond Rand Water’s supply capacity.

Assuring the public that Gauteng had sufficient water supply for years to come, Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane said that, with the province’s aggregate dam levels at 84%, surpassing that of the national level of 66%, no major water shortages were envisaged.

However, South Africans needed to restrict their water use – now and in the future – as Rand Water and the cities of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane struggled to fill water reservoirs to an acceptable level on the back of the ongoing high demand for water amid a heatwave and a prolonged period of no rain.

Mokonyane, along with Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Senzeni Zokwana and Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti, was addressing media at an inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Water Scarcity and Drought briefing in Pretoria on Friday.

Above-average demand had resulted in the water supply to some areas being cut, with temporary water tankers dispatched to ease the burden in the three Gauteng metropolis.

Mokonyane said that, in recent weeks, Rand Water had found itself having to increase water production from the standard 4 664 Mℓ/d to 4 882 Mℓ/d, as demand surged from 4 489 Mℓ/d to 4 900 Mℓ/d, peaking at over 5 000 Mℓ/d.

Rand Water’s storage system stored around 5 812 Mℓ/d of water, but the high demand depleted water storage to 1 943 Mℓ/d.

“The issue is that demand is outstripping supply. We need to limit the demand to what we can produce. Under normal circumstances, the water in the system caters for everybody,” Rand Water CEO Percy Sechemane explained.

Mokonyane called on users to stop watering their gardens, which accounted for 46% of Rand Water’s domestic use allocation, and cut back on “comfort” or recreational use of water, particularly in the more affluent regions.

“It’s the northern suburbs, not Soweto,” she said of the recent rise in demand.

Gordhan added that the shortages and interruptions affected a fraction of the province’s households, adding that it was only a crisis in some regions and just a problem or challenge in others.

Collaboration, a change in mindset and behaviour and cooperation would see the effective mitigation of future water supply issues.

The cities had implemented a “recovery” plan that would see continued water supply cuts in certain areas between specified periods to allow sufficient time for the water levels in the water reservoirs and water towers to recover.

“If all of us work together to implement the recovery plan, it is possible for us to reach a situation where there will no longer be large numbers of households without water by Tuesday next week,” the IMC said.

Gordhan warned that the public needed to “do things differently” in the world’s thirtiest driest country, with South Africans using 61.8% more water than the world average water use of 173 ℓ/d.

Meanwhile, Molewa said the El Nino phenomenon, the above-normal temperatures, below-average rainfall and climate change had exacerbated an already stretched system that was losing up to R7-billion in water losses on the back of leaks, wastage and illegal connections.

Between 37% and 42% of potable water was currently unaccounted for.

South Africa remained a water scarce country, with its yearly rainfall half that of the global average of 860 mm.

“We are doing the work to ensure [that], as a country, we are able to plan accordingly,” she noted.

While regional water supply dams and schemes were secure and “sitting at” positive water levels, there was a downward trend in the country’s aggregate water levels, which had fallen from 74.6% during the same period last year to the current 64.3% as a drought hit some 173 of the 1 628 water supply schemes nationwide.

Five provinces, namely the North West, KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, had declared a drought emergency as South Africa battled the effects of the El Nino phenomenon and climate change.

Drought interventions included the allocation of more than R400-million to dispatch water tankers, undertake borehole drilling and rehabilitation, water source augmentation, water conservation and demand management.

Government had initiated policy frameworks, research initiatives, international response adaptation and the development of institutional and operational arrangements to address the issues, with work and planning set to continue to cement South Africa’s ability to bounce back from weather-induced challenges, Molewa said.

“We expect the El Nino phenomenon to continue until at least March 2016, which means that the current hot and dry conditions are likely to persist for the next six months. South Africans must adapt to a changing climate and reduce water use per person.”

Beyond that, South Africa had little choice but to adapt to a new environment that was short of water in a climate that was continually changing.