Water Wheel March/April 2020: Bulk Water Supply

Abstract

BULK W ATER SUPPLY “It’s not a crisis, but one thing is for sure, it can’t be business as usual,” says Timothy Nast, Gauteng Provincial Government Chief Director of the Planning Division, in reference to the province’s water security. Gauteng’s water supply has always been precarious, but outside of prolonged droughts, a supply has always been secure. Perched on the divide between the Limpopo and Orange river basins, the province itself is home to few streams. Apart from the 15 million or so residents that call it home, a constant and secure water supply to Gauteng is also critical because the province supports the bulk of our country’s economy. To ensure this, water is imported via the highly engineered Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS). This collection of dams, rivers, pipelines and canals supports the quarter or so of all South Africans that reside in the Gauteng City Region (GCR) as well as 50% of the country’s GDP (water is also supplied to a substantial proportion of the economic activity in the Crocodile-Marico and Upper Olifants catchments).

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