Formerly called Rand Water Board Products Bulk potable water | Industry Water Utility Founded 1903 | |
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Headquarters Glenvista, Gauteng, South Africa Key people Matshidiso Hashatse (Chairperson)
Percy Sechemane (CEO) Services Infrastructure and storage system management, water purification, bulk sanitation, water quality management, and water analysis | ||
Jt rand water
Rand Water previously known as the Rand Water Board is a South African water utility that supplies potable water to the Gauteng province and other areas of the country and is the largest water utility in Africa. The water is drawn from numerous sources and is purified and supplied to industry, mining and local municipalities and is also involved in sanitation of waste water.
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History
The Witwatersrand sits on the South African Highveld and consists of mostly grasslands with summer rains with an average yearly of 784mm rainfall. The Witwatersrand ridge stretches for 96 km from east to west with rivers north of the ridge flowing to north into the Limpopo and into the Indian Ocean while the rivers south of the ridge flow south into the Vaal and Orange River and into the Atlantic Ocean. The rivers in the Witwatersrand tended to dry out in the winter and were therefore a poor source of water and semiarid with grasslands and soil more suitable for cattle and sheep farming prior to the discovery of gold.
Gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand during March 1886 and several communities would rapidly develop from tents, to villages, towns and eventually into a city called Johannesburg. Being on the watershed of two river systems, the area was always short of water for the growing industry and community. After the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902), the British government took control of the Transvaal Colony and with the need to restore gold mining to pre-war levels. The Transvaal administration decided to centralise the management of water resources on the Witwatersrand and the Rand Water Board was formed on 8 May 1903 with the enactment of Rand Water Board Incorporation Ordinance No. 32.
The Board would be made up of eleven members recommended by the Governor of the Transvaal Colony, the Johannesburg Town Council, the Chamber of Mines and other municipalities at the time and would amalgamate all other companies currently supply water to that point. The initial eleven members consisted of five members from the Chamber of Mines, three from the Johannesburg municipality, one from Germiston/Boksburg, one from Springs and one from Krugersdorp/Roodepoort. It would commence operations in 1905. Later membership increased to 34 as Benoni joined in 1906, the Railways in 1914, Brakpan in 1920, Randfontein in 1929, Nigel in 1935 and Pretoria and Vereeniging in 1944.
Supply system
Rand Water provides potable water to metropolitan and local municipalities, industry and mining in Gauteng, and parts of Mpumalanga, the Free State, and North West provinces. Rand Water has water network of 3,056 km of pipelines, 53 reservoirs, supplying 3,653 million litres of water daily to its varied customers. Its headquarters is in the suburb of Glenvista.