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Water · Gauteng

Tshwane

Is my water reliable? How much is lost? Is it safe?

39.1%

of the water bought or purified was lost before it was sold in 2024-25. Treasury’s norm is 15% to 30%.

Official: Audited annual financial statements · Data as of 2024-25 financial year (audited statements) · Next update expected Jan 2027 (2025-26 annual reports) · Last updated

Compare all eight metros: Water. An asterisk marks a figure our automated checks found inconsistent with another official figure; it is shown as reported, explained in a footnote and left out of rankings.

Water cut for two days or more

Official: Stats SA, General Household Survey 2025 · Data as of General Household Survey 2025

385 000

households in Tshwane told Stats SA their water had been cut for 48 hours or more at a time in the past year, out of about 1 476 000 households.

Stats SA: “a smaller percentage of households in metropolitan areas reported water interruptions (30,0% compared with 37,6%). Water interruptions were most common in eThekwini (43,9%), which is almost six time more common than in the City of Cape Town (7,8%).”

Cut 2+ days: households that answered yes to a water cut of 48 hours or more at a time, in thousands as Stats SA prints them (Table 2.8: Water and sanitation variables by metro); all households from Table 3.7. A sample survey. Sources: GHS 2025: selected development indicators, metros (P0318.3); the quotation is from the main GHS 2025 release (P0318), section 9.3. For cuts happening now, see the city’s notices and community reports.

Water lost before it reaches a meter

Official: audited annual financial statements · Data as of 2024-25 financial year (audited statements) · Next update expected Jan 2027 (2025-26 annual reports) · Last updated

Water a metro buys or purifies but never bills: leaks, burst pipes, illegal connections and faulty meters. Treasury’s norm is 15% to 30%.

What these words mean
Distribution losses
Water or electricity a metro buys or produces but never bills: leaks, theft, illegal connections and faulty meters.
Non-revenue water
All water that earns no money, including water given free to poor households. Close to, but not the same as, water lost.
Treasury norm
A target National Treasury sets for every municipality in MFMA Circular 71, so metros can be compared on the same scale.
Water lost in distribution · 2024-25

39.1%

Treasury norm: 15% to 30%

Share of water bought or purified that is lost before it is sold.

Source: Tshwane’s audited annual financial statements.

Water bought from Rand Water

Official: Rand Water, weekly meter readings · week of 21 Sep 2026 · Data as of week of 21 Sep 2026 · Updates: weekly · Last updated

What these words mean
Ml a day
Megalitres a day. One megalitre is a million litres, about half an Olympic swimming pool.
Water-use licence
The national Department of Water and Sanitation’s permission for Rand Water to take water from the Vaal system: a permanent amount, and a higher temporary one. Rand Water shows each metro’s share as a level in Ml a day.

864 Ml a day

Tshwane’s average use of Rand Water’s water in the week of 21 Sep 2026: 30% above the 667 Ml a day Rand Water sets for Tshwane under its permanent licence, and 6% less than a year earlier (920 Ml a day).

Ml a day, week by week, 22 Sep 2025 to 21 Sep 2026. Dashed lines: the levels for Tshwane under Rand Water’s permanent (667 Ml a day) and temporary (752 Ml a day) licences.
650800950PermanentTemporary22 Sep 202521 Sep 2026

Average megalitres a day each week, read from Rand Water’s bulk meters. This is water the metro buys, not water residents use: some is lost in the metro’s own pipes (see “Water lost before it reaches a meter”). About 80% of Tshwane’s water comes from Rand Water; the rest from its own works, boreholes and springs, and Magalies Water (audited statements 2024-25, p.121). Rand Water states its licences as 1 600 million m³ a year (permanent) and 1 803 million m³ a year (temporary), and shows each metro’s level in Ml a day. Source: Rand Water, weekly meter readings, 21 Sep 2026 (all weeks).

Main water supply system

Official: DWS weekly State of Reservoirs, copied 10 Oct 2026 · Data as of see the copy date · Updates: DWS publishes weekly; we copy by hand

97%

full: the Integrated Vaal River System, Tshwane’s main water supply system. Last week 101%; a year ago 98%.

About 80% of Tshwane’s water comes from Rand Water (Vaal system); the rest from the City’s own treatment works (Temba, Roodeplaat, Rietvlei, Bronkhorstspruit), boreholes and springs, and Magalies Water (audited statements 2024-25, p.121). Source

DWS: these summaries cover only the dams in its State of Reservoirs report. Several metros share a system: Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni all draw mainly on the Integrated Vaal River System. Each metro’s main system is confirmed from its own documents (source). The DWS site refuses automated requests, so these figures are copied by hand from its summary pages each week (copied 10 Oct 2026; the report’s own date was not copied). Source: DWS, weekly summary by water supply system.

Water outage notices

Official: City of Tshwane, service interruptions · Data as of see each notice’s date · Updates: checked daily · Last updated

35 water interruption notices from Tshwane since 1 Jan 2025; 34 named places we could match to wards.

Wards named most often (2021 boundaries), notices since 1 Jan 2025
Ward 4610Ward 428Ward 828Ward 417Ward 527Ward 597Ward 657Ward 857Ward 967Ward 136

Latest notices

Places are matched by their Stats SA Census 2011 names, longest name first, with no guessing; a name we cannot match is listed for checking and not linked to a ward. Notices before 1 Jan 2025 are not included. Where a metro publishes no notices, residents can report an outage (community reports, unverified).

Still to come on this page

  • Dam levels every week for Tshwane’s supply system, with the report’s own date. Department of Water and Sanitation, weekly state of reservoirs · the department’s sites refuse automated requests, including from GitHub’s servers; the figures above were copied by hand
  • Drinking-water and wastewater ratings. Department of Water and Sanitation, Blue Drop and Green Drop reports · ws.dws.gov.za and www.dws.gov.za refuse automated requests, including from GitHub’s servers