Water Wheel July/Aug 2024: Water Crisis

Abstract

Cover feature Gauteng: Multipronged solution required to keep SA’s economic heart beating Water supply to the economic heartland of South Africa has always been a precarious issue. The first challenge is Gauteng’s unfortunately location. The province sits on top of the watershed that divides the Limpopo and Orange River basins with rain falling north of Johannesburg’s Parktown ridge draining into the Limpopo River and Indian Ocean while rain falling south of the ridge drains into the Vaal River and eventually into the Atlantic Ocean. The discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886 did not only result in the establishment of large mines and industries in an area devoid of large rivers, but also led to an influx of people and the founding of cities such as Johannesburg. Through the decades Gauteng has had to meet its steadily rising demand for water by the creation of a sophisticated engineered bulk water storage and delivery system, the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS).

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