PRETORIA - Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina is launching an audit of Gauteng’s water treatment plants.
It comes amid reports of water contamination and unreliable supply.
Majodina says the audit will identify infrastructure problems.
"We're focussing on Gauteng because of the high population of Gauteng, but also there's unreliability of water supply. There's a lot of contamination that gets reported time and again in Gauteng…
“Unless we do the audit, we might not be able to know exactly what the state of these water treatment works is, because to us that is very much important,” she said.
The minister also called on the private sector to help bankrupt municipalities fund urgent repairs.
“We need nothing less than R400 billion to fix the entire system with the money that the country does not have. That is why we have made a call that the private sector must also partner with municipalities. Most of our municipalities, they don't have a revenue collection.”
Previously, Rand Water warned that a major water supply crisis could be looming as excessive consumption places its entire network under severe pressure.
The pressure comes as several municipal customers have reached what the water utility described as 'exceptionally high levels'.
Among those areas ranking high included City of Johannesburg, City of Tshwane, City of Ekurhuleni.
Other municipalities on the list include Mogale City, Emfuleni, Madibeng, Merafong and Lesedi.
READ | Rand Water flags areas consuming more water than allocated