Question NW1659 to the Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation

Reply:

(a) Through the water balance information submitted by Water Service Authorities (WSAs), the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) makes determinations of water losses. The last comprehensive analysis on water losses and non-revenue water (NRW) was undertaken in 2016/17. The total volume of water lost as a result of leakages from pipes and reservoirs was estimated at 1150.079 million m3/annum at the time.

(b) The table below indicates the ten (10) WSAs that had the highest water losses:

No.	Name of the Water Service Authority
1.	City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality
2.	eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality
3.	City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality
4.	Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality
5.	Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality
6.	City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality
7.	Emfuleni Local Municipality
8.	uThukela District Municipality
9.	Mopani District Municipality
10.	Mbombela Local Municipality

(c) The WSAs are mandated by the Water Services Act, Act 108 of 1997 to prevent and act on water losses within their distribution networks. The Department of Water and Sanitation provides support to municipalities through different programmes to manage the demand and reduce water losses. The various measures being implemented to support municipalities to prevent, reduce and manage water losses include: 

• The No Drop programme which is a tool to regulate municipal performance against set Regulations and best management principles for water loss and demand management. 
• The No Drop Guideline, which focuses on the key requirements (water resource balance diagram, water balance, Water Conservation and Water Demand Management (WCWDM) Strategy) that are building blocks to planning for implementation of WCWDM projects. Municipalities have been trained on the use of the No Drop.
• There is also continuous capacity building programmes on WCWDM for municipalities. Training includes how to benchmark leakages, planning and implementation of WCWDM projects, International Water Association (IWA) water balance methods, etc.
• The Reconciliation and All Towns strategies (intended to ensure the water resource balance) have WCWDM as one of the priority intervention programmes for all municipalities. The Departmental forums and engagements are used to stress the importance of WCWDM aligned to these strategies. In these forums, Municipalities are expected to report on their implementation of WCWDM efforts.
• The Department is also evaluating and commenting on the Water Services Development Plans (WSDPs) and master plans of municipalities. These plans should indicate the actions and interventions designed to conserve water and enhance water demand management.
• The DWS also has various projects that are funded either under Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant (RBIG) or Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG), that also address water losses in municipalities
• The DWS through the cooperation with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has built the training centre/ facility for Non-Revenue Water and water losses management. A number of municipality officials have already attended this training.

The Department further monitors water losses within the 8 (eight) largest water supply systems on an annual basis. The 8 large Water Supply Systems (WSS) supply water to the 8 metropolitan municipalities and other major cities. These areas serve 33.9 million people, which is equivalent to 57 % of the country’s total population. The total input volume in these areas is about 2 662 661 000 m³/a compared with national 4 046 463 000 m³/a (65 % total urban water consumption). These are areas of economic significance with the total gross value added of between 20-40%.