‘We have to wake up at 1am to get water’ – Life grinds to a halt in Westbury amid outages

Jaqueline Holmes wakes at 1am every morning to shower, fill water bottles, and start washing clothes for her sleeping family. If she can, she gets her elderly cancer-stricken mother up and bathed.

It is a race against the clock because when 5am hits, the taps will run dry again until the next morning.

This five-year struggle has worsened since March. Holmes and her neighbours now have not had a full week of water in seven months.

Holmes is one of dozens of frustrated Westbury and Westdene residents who took to the streets this week to block roads with rocks and burning tyres.

Water shutdown

The busy Harmony Street in Coronationville which carries hundreds of commuters a day resembled the scene of a post-apocalypse film when The Citizen visited on Wednesday. Rocks scattered across the tarmac, chants and smoke rising into the air.

Police monitored the situation, unsuccessfully trying to clear the roads and disperse angry residents.

Seemingly to appease their demands, water was restored during the protest on Wednesday.

But when the water cut again on Thursday morning, residents returned to the streets more upset and resolute.

ALSO READ: ‘Stop bullying us’: Westbury residents shut down streets for second day over water [VIDEO]

‘We will not be intimidated’

They barracked the road and stopped anyone coming through, except for a doctor on his way to a medical emergency.

When police attempted to clear the road, residents surrounded them and shouted at officers not to bully them.

WATCH: The confrontation between residents and police

WATCH: Westbury residents confront police attempting to clear a protest over water outages in the area. They claim the police are targeting them and not criminals in the area. pic.twitter.com/Cf5kHPcSrb

— Kyle Zeeman (@Justzeeman) October 17, 2024

“There is no water in the houses but the minister [of water] has at his house. If you open the road, we will come back in our numbers [to shut it again]. We will not be intimidated.”

“Why don’t you guys come here when they [criminals] shoot [us]? Go instead and deal with the criminals. Instead, you want us soft targets,” residents shouted.

Police have intervened, saying the protest is illegal because it does not have the required permissions. Holmes says she applied for permission earlier this week but had not heard back from the city.

ALSO READ: Gauteng water crisis: ‘The crisis we sought to prevent has now materialised’

Children can’t go to school

She said life has got worse in the already impoverished and crime-ridden area. The unemployed walk the streets, looking for “peace jobs” to give them enough money to feed their families.

Even those employed now have to budget to buy bottled water to supplement the little they get from their taps.

Schools in the area frequently close their gates or send children home early because of the lack of water, leaving thousands without opportunities to get a quality education that may change their circumstances.

It is a near-hopeless situation for Holmes and others.

“Where do our children get an education? It is not okay. We are frustrated and tired. Water is a basic human right and we are being deprived of it.

“We want to be seen. We want to finally be heard”.

NOW READ: Gauteng water crisis: No date for Day Zero but it will be a summer of outages