Gauteng water pipeline collapse: sign of national security threat?

The recent Zwartkopjes pipeline blowout caused misery for many residents and the police are investigating whether it was simple vandalism or deliberate sabotage. If the latter, what lies behind it?

- By Anthony Turton

The water supply system sustaining the Gauteng economy is complex and vast. Pipelines are big and cover long distances as water is pumped uphill from the Rand Water processing plant adjacent to the Vaal River.

Pumps are big and in need of constant maintenance and upgrading, and the pressures involved are high enough to be lethal if a pipe should fail. Even more importantly, the servitudes that carry this infrastructure need to be kept clear of habitation, so the encroachment of shack settlements erodes the reliability of the system while also exposing residents to potentially lethal risk.

Why is this of importance to the public? The answer is simple. If pipelines fail, people are directly affected by a range of outcomes, all of which are undesirable. The worst possible outcome is the potential loss of life or property, but the most likely outcome is disruption to the water supply for all users serviced by any given pipeline.

If a single pipeline fails, tens of thousands of people are inconvenienced, businesses are distressed and hospital services are degraded. All of this makes people angry.

We see lots of anger right now, so let us drill down into the national security implications arising from this growing anger.

Scheduled upgrades

First, let me describe the context. Rand Water has been engaged in a series of complex infrastructure upgrades over the past few months. They have generally been well communicated across different platforms, including the Platform for a Water Secure Gauteng on which I have been reporting.

Each of these upgrades has required some disruption to the supply chain, so communication has been designed to minimise that disruption. More importantly, each specific upgrade has been carefully planned and, in all cases, flawlessly executed within the projected timeframe, often ahead of schedule.