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It's not just Johannesburg that is dealing with a water crisis. MP Cheryl Phillips reflects on the situation in Rustenburg which is also supplied by Randwater.
Rand Water supplies water to Rustenburg from the Eikenhof plant.
As outlying consumers, Rustenburg residents are the first to go without water and the last to have water restored.
Mining operations are water intensive, especially when there is no rain as their return water dams dry up. Rustenburg is a mining town and many of the platinum mines get water from Rand Water.
We already have people being retrenched because of the low PGM prices. A shortage of water is going to put even more pressure on the mines. The North West has the highest unemployment rate in the country.
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Residents in Rustenburg supplied by Magalies Water have been suffering for years, but it has been really bad since March 2023. In October, I presented a petition from residents to the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation, after which there was a lot of scurrying around by the minister and deputy minister, but nothing improved.
In 2017, a project was started to purify acid mine drainage (AMD), but it was stopped by the minister in 2019. Every day 70Ml of AMD is pumped out of underground workings and neutralised (the first two steps into turning it into potable water), but then, instead of completing the process, it’s pumped back into the water system to seep into the groundwater again.
The reason for stopping the project was the cost - about R1.7 billion in 2019 - but Magalies Water have just spent R1.4 billion on a reservoir and pipe system that they will only have the capacity to fill in 2027 (if we are lucky)
Expecting Rustenburg residents to go without water for another three or four years is inhumane.
- Cheryl Phillips is a member of the National Assembly
