Service - Leadership in Government - Issue 77

municipality
S
Two active power stations
with a total capacity of
600MW
71%
of housing in
Johannesburg
is inadequate.
ACCESS TO SERVICES
Provision of basic services to the community of
Johannesburg is comparatively high with most households
(both formal and informal) enjoying access to piped
water (98.8%), sanitation (96.4%) and electricity (92.3%).
There continues to be a deficit, particularly in informal
settlements, where less than half of the households have
access to basic sanitation.
Ponty Towers, Hillbrow, Johannesburg.
electricity continues to be most prevalent
in informal dwellings and settlements.
One of the critical challenges the
City faces is the cost and demands of
constant maintenance and upgrading of
the energy infrastructure within the city
to enable appropriate, secure and reliable
distribution. This challenge is worsened
by illegal connections, cable theft and
vandalism. City Power has commissioned
several feasibility studies to investigate the
potential use of renewable energy sources
to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases
and to ensure sustainable use of energy.
Cllr Mpho
Moerane,
Member of
the Mayoral
Committee for
Environment,
Infrastructure
and Services.
Water and sanitation
A total of 1.47-million (98.4%) households have access
serviced through yard connection in formalised areas
and through communal standpipes within a maximum
walking distance of 200 metres in informal settlements.
The City has been successful in decreasing the water
backlog (represented by the number of households that
do not have piped water within 200 metres of their
dwelling) over time.
A total of 1.36-million (92.7%) households in
Johannesburg have access to sanitation through
individual sewer connection to properties in formalised
areas and at basic level through VIPs and ablution blocks
in informal settlements.
Water consumption remains constant at 285 litres
per person per day year-on-year. The City has 100%
compliance with sludge disposal requirements. Ageing
infrastructure remains one of the key challenges.
100 water towers and reservoirs
8 000km of water pipes
8 149km of sewerage pipes
Electricity and energy
A total of 1.6-million households (92.3%) have
electricity, which they use for multiple purposes, while
12 806 households (0.8%) have electricity for lighting
only. Approximately 133 540 households (7.7%) have
no electrical connection. On average, this figure has
increased at 0.45% per year since 2007. A lack of
Decommissioned power station in Orlando, Soweto.
The Human Development Index (HDI) combines
three basic dimensions of human development:
a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent
standard of living. A maximum value of one
indicates a high level of development, while zero
indicates no human development.
The current HDI figures underscore the 2021
target by 1.39% at 0.73.
The quality of life index seeks to measure
the satisfaction level of residents using broad
concepts like living conditions, social cohesion,
social exclusion, attitudes towards institutions
and other topics.
The current quality of life figures (6.34)
underperform the 2021 target (6.50) by 0.16%.
Service magazine | 13