Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning

There are various types of water related infrastructure that relies on a stable electricity supply to operate. They range from pump stations to water and wastewater treatment works processes to some metering equipment, etc. Apart from not being able to operate without a stable power supply,

1. load-shedding impacts different infrastructure installation at different degrees of severity. As an example, electronic equipment and controls are vulnerable to power surges. There are built in mechanisms to deal with this, but it is not designed to be triggered consistently, but rather for emergency/irregular situations. This could result in the failure of components of an electronic or control system or may cause calibration or functionality issues. There are various components in water and wastewater treatment works which are exposed to this risk. More robust mechanical infrastructure, such as large pumps, mixers, dosing equipment have their own risks (to note, they are usually controlled by electronic systems). A large pipe for example may induce pipeline surges if pumps are abruptly turned off which result in physical damage or leaks in a pipeline due to transient forces. It is difficult to specifically state how load shedding damages water infrastructure in general as different infrastructure installations have their own vulnerabilities depending on how reliant they are on power or how they were specifically designed.
2. The cost of repairs to infrastructure resulting specifically from load-shedding for each municipality between 2018 and 2023 is currently being gathered by the department. The information will be made available as soon as it has been consolidated.