Premier David Makhura, on Friday 23 March 2018, convened a Premier’s Coordinating Forum. The objective of the forum is to promote and facilitate intergovernmental relations between the provincial government and various municipalities to ensure integrated effective and efficient service delivery across the province.

One of the issues that took precedence in today’s meeting is water security in the province amongst other things. Water experts from different institutions noted that Gauteng uses 11% of the country's water, whilst contributing 38% to the national economy.

They said it was clear that the volume of water required by 2025 would not be met, if additional storage infrastructure was not built and investment into the additional dams was not given the priority it deserved. They also agreed that water security can only be achieved only if there is an adequate, safe, reliable and affordable supply to all consumers.

The panel of experts also noted that infrastructure is insurance against uncertainty and therefore Gauteng had to invest in adequate water infrastructure. “The Gauteng City Region (GCR) is very vulnerable with regards to facing a water crisis and this is due to our location, the type of economy we run, and the number of people we attract.

“We need to agree on setting up a water war room that will be made up of representatives from the provincial government and local government. This war room will have both a political and technical component which will be used to identify trends and respond to those,” said Makhura.

All municipalities in Gauteng are represented in the PCF and meet regularly to look at issues of service delivery and investment in infrastructure. A war summit will be convened in June, where a plan to deal with water security and sustainability will be adopted.

Issued by the Gauteng Provincial Government