January 19, 2007
By Lucky Sindane
ABOUT 33 billion litres of water have been saved in Soweto through Operation Gcin'amanzi, Johannesburg Water's multi-million rand project aimed at replacing leaking water pipes and ageing infrastructure in Soweto.
The R450-million project was launched in 2003 to improve service delivery and cut down on the huge amount of water lost in Soweto. The area's deteriorating water infrastructure was resulting in the loss of seven billion litres of water a month.
Phiri was the project's point of departure. "In Phiri alone about 1 771 houses with leaking pipes and water cisterns were fixed," said Johannesburg water's spokesperson, Baldwin Matsimela.
"Installation areas are encountered in accordance with our project roll out plan. Areas are allocated to what we refer to in the project as 'superblocks'. A superblock comprises of suburbs that form part of a water district. There are currently 15 superblocks that cover the entire area of Soweto."
Work on the 15 superblocks is then rolled out in four phases; the first two phases of the project have been completed. For example, Phiri is a suburb of superblock one in phase one.
The installation of prepaid water meters has ensured that water usage is charged accurately
There had been substantial progress on the third phase, and the fourth phase was in the process of tender adjudication, Matsimela said. About 54 000 households out of a total of 170 000 households in Soweto are now equipped with free, payment water meters.
With free installation, payment water meters are being used to correct problems caused by inaccurate water readings and water billing.
"The cost has been brought down by 84 percent as a global average [across] the 54 000 households. Before the implementation of the project every Soweto household was supplied with an average of 66 kilolitres of water, for which they were charged a flat rate of over R128 a month," Matsimela said.
"Currently in each of the 54 000 households the supply of water has been brought down to an average of 10,5 kilolitres. The average monthly expenditure on buying water credit is R20,45, to top up the free basic water allocation."
To date about R95-million had been saved on water losses in the region.
"The response is positive and in areas where we have yet to roll out the project, the percentage of … acceptance of the project is over 75 percent," Matsimela added.
"We are working closely with the political leadership at ward levels as well as actively engaging with all relevant stakeholders by participating in community meetings."
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