Helderkruin residents battle without water for over 20 days

Helderkruin residents were plagued with the never-ending water issues they experienced and said that they are fed-up with the level of service delivery they are receiving – some cited their cries fall on deaf ears and that it takes forever to have these issues sorted.

Roodepoort experienced a major outage on September 19, causing water supply issues, while other issues include burst pipes flooding the streets. Despite attempts from Johannesburg Water (JW) to fix the issues, the problem persists.

Karin Hanekom said that they had reported the situation to the City of Johannesburg on September 19 and had received ‘reference number after reference number’, but when they followed up, they were told the situation had been resolved or to contact Rand Water.

“Rand Water told us to contact the municipality, but the municipality claimed they are not responsible for the water shortage, which has been ongoing for 19 days now,” Hanekom said.

Michelle Groenewald, a resident of Dakota Ave, stated that they were on day 11 of this situation and while many calls were logged by other residents and the local councillor was contacted on many occasions, they remained without water.

“We are a few residents of about 12 houses who have had no water for almost two weeks now, we have made numerous calls to Rand Water but nothing. This is a real problem,” she said.

While some houses in her complex had water, the pressure was relatively low, and this affected senior citizens who relied on chronic medication having to resort to collecting water in other parts of the area.

“We have a lot of elderly people who really struggle and having to go up and down the stairs with water bottles is a problem and it is unacceptable,” Groenewald said.

Sharon Grundy, another Helderkruin resident said 26 out of 58 homes in her complex have not had water for over 27 days and that ‘it is a basic human right infringement’.

“We are in communication with the councillor who is communicating with Johannesburg Water, but the issue is not being resolved. I do not believe a word anyone says anymore – anywhere else in the world, you would have been compensated. This is also a health hazard,” Grundy said.

While the water crisis on Sonderend Street worsened after pipe bursts, which caused major flooding and water wastage, Anetjie Venter said she had called JW for help on multiple occasions and cited they got there after dark, did some work and left. She thinks the tree roots need removal.

The water entity issued a media statement on October 4 which confirmed that they were aware of the water supply issue and that the cause of this was from the source bulk supply zone along the JW Helderkruin Reservoir and tower zone.

Ward councillor Florence Roberts roped in on the matter, and in response to the water shortage experienced by Helderkruin, this has been going on for six months now and is getting worse by the day.

“Rand Water is the supplier and Johannesburg Water the distributor of water and since the advent of ‘water shedding’ both these entities are struggling to adequately explain to residents why. They cite leaking pipes, air in the pipes, high demand etc. This makes no sense when there is full supply,” Roberts said.

Roberts further stated that they feel powerless due to the constant appeals, residents losing faith, and encouraged residents to vote for a new administration in next year’s election.

“In response to the damaged infrastructure and leakages, pipe bursts in the ward and Roodepoort cause significant water waste – wasting days to weeks before JW addresses the leak, causing residents to experience water loss.”

The City’s service level agreement with JW requires leaks to be resolved within 24 to 48 hours, but JW struggles with capacity, materials, budgets, and contractors, leading to water-shedding and infrastructure collapse.