Water Wheel July/August 2021

Abstract

Vaal intervention – Mission critical The Vaal water system is not only the lifeblood of Gauteng, it is one of the most strategic water assets in the country, on this African continent and a water management area of global significance. The water security it provides daily to 19 million people, more that a third of South Africa’s de facto population almost masks the fact that it provides water security to power and sustain this 1.4% of South Africa’s land area that generates close to 34% of its GDP and 10% of that of all of Africa. It is also the recipient of one of the world’s biggest transfer schemes, from the highlands of neighbouring Lesotho. And yet, since the start of mining on the Witwatersrand, this river system has been taken for granted, is substantively overworked, and generally underinvested in post-Lesotho, with respect to infrastructure and very little investment on operations and maintenance. She has been abused. The knock-on effects of that abuse have played itself out in the obvious narrative. The water system can no longer cope.

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