Johannesburg Weighs Tighter Water Restrictions as Supply Falters

(Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s business capital is considering tighter water curbs as it battles to maintain aging infrastructure and cope with increased demand.

The city of Johannesburg currently has level 1 restrictions in place, which prohibit consumers from irrigating their gardens and using municipal water to clean paved areas at their residences between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Those measures are “not entirely effective,” Johannesburg Water Operations Manager Logan Munsamy said in remarks aired by broadcaster Newzroom Afrika. “We are looking at increasing that level of restriction, possibly to level 2 or higher.” The second tier of restraints prohibits using municipal water to irrigate gardens and top up swimming pools and bans using hosepipes to wash vehicles and clean pavements.

South Africa’s government is grappling with a worsening water crisis mainly caused by decades of underinvestment and poor maintenance. Rand Water, Africa’s biggest bulk-water supplier, warned in October that Gauteng province — the nation’s commercial hub that includes Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria — may run out of water unless the cities didn’t immediately curb consumption.

Residents in the western Johannesburg suburb of Westbury clashed with police on Wednesday over a water outage, while the Democratic Alliance party issued a memorandum to Executive Mayor Dada Morero stating that some households haven’t had supply for 70 days.

South Africa’s central bank said crumbling water, transport and other infrastructure poses a significant threat to the country’s financial system.

The collapse in water infrastructure is intensifying just as South Africa recovers from a yearslong energy crisis, in which the state power utility implemented electricity outages across the country for as long as 12 hours a day.

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