All hands to the pump to keep the thirsty hydrated.
Residents from the suburbs surrounding Klein Helderkruin Retirement Home turned into a humanitarian water shuttle service on April 22. Regardless of affiliation, community groups and private residents created a network of shared resources that stretched beyond any boundary. For four days, residents have been without water, and burst mains and interrupted electricity supply cause mass confusion.
On Monday afternoon, April 18, Johannesburg Water announced emergency repairs to a burst main to commence the following morning. The repairs would affect a line serving Floracliffe, Constantia Kloof, Helderkruin and adjacent suburbs. A water tanker was arranged for the nearby hospital with fingers crossed that the timeline for repairs, 08:00 to 09:00 that morning, would be adhered to.
By the morning of April 20, Johannesburg Water reported that there was insufficient supply to Helderkruin, Roodekrans and Wilro Park. Intermittent electricity supply due to Eskom-enforced rolling blackouts exacerbated the situation, causing similar occurrences across Johannesburg. Investigations by the water utility were underway but by later that evening, supply at the reservoir was at critical levels.
The following day, water levels at the reservoir had improved but many areas were still experiencing empty taps. From mid-morning on April 21, residents from across Roodekrans, Helderkruin and Wilro Park began mobilising to meet the needs of the community. Despite updates to the contrary, the taps of many homes were still dry on Friday morning, April 22 and the mass deliveries of water began.
With water tankers few and far between, the saving grace would be the residents who offered their borehole water to their neighbours in and beyond their streets. The retirees at Klein Helderkruin Retirement Village are among the most vulnerable and from roughly 09:00, residents with flatbeds had begun shuttling water bottles back and forth from homes with boreholes.
Unfortunately, government-induced electricity cuts render the borehole pumps inoperable, pausing any humanitarian efforts. As of mid-day on Friday, community groups continued to coordinate as best they could with no end in sight to the sporadic drought.
Investigations into the outage were still underway but hydrants were being emptied to release any excess air that may be causing a pressure imbalance in the pipes..
