For the past five days and counting (since October 6), residents who receive their water supply from the South Hills water tower in areas such as South Hills, Linmeyer, Risana, Tulisa Park, Moffat View, and parts of Oakdene and Rosettenville, have had no water running through their taps.
Johannesburg Water’s response has been vague, with the reasons given that its poor supply comes from Rand Water’s side and that there’s “high consumption”. However, the greater concern is that the lengthy water outages emanating from the South Hills water tower have consistently happened at least once yearly for the past four years.
The early warning sirens were sounded on September 13, when all the Gauteng public representatives were called to a meeting at the Birchwood Hotel, where the deputy minister of Water and Sanitation, David Mahlobo, was present with Rand Water officials.
They said at the meeting that most of Gauteng’s municipalities, including the City of Johannesburg, were exceeding their water licenses.
It was almost as if they were preparing us for lengthy water outages but, at the same time, laying the blame squarely on the municipalities for the inept management of their resources.
Now, this is not without merit. Just travel through wards 56 and 57 (and anywhere in Johannesburg, in fact), which were left unattended for months on end despite being reported and several escalations from the ward councillors.
No doubt, when it gets warmer, consumers do use more water, and that does require a level of restriction, but Johannesburg Water must get its house in order and also fix the leaks.
However, Rand Water cannot also merely exonerate itself from blame because one must question why the reservoir levels are low before any consumption has taken place. Is the water perhaps being throttled due to the municipality exceeding its water license? Possibly, but then they must be honest and inform the public.
What is also of concern is that the South Hills water tower seems to be one of the worst affected towers in terms of lengthy water outages in the south of Johannesburg, and that needs investigating, as does Rand Water’s Meyershill reservoir, which has been out of commission for the past two to three years.
Would that alone solve the regular water outages? Probably not, because in 2021, there was a 12-day outage when it was in commission. However, it does highlight that elements of Rand Water’s line need to be worked on.
Clearly, there needs to be a better working relationship between the City of Johannesburg’s administration and the national government because this matter is nothing short of a full-blown humanitarian crisis, and residents want solutions rather than finger-pointing exercises.
Lest we forget that Section 27 (1) (B) of the SA Constitution says everyone has the right to have access to sufficient water.
As councillors, we will take this matter further. We have fought this issue for four years now and will continue to fight for our residents until this gets a permanent solution.
We will submit questions for the MMC for Infrastructure, Clr Jack Sekwaila, to answer. We will submit a Promotion of Access to Information Act application and bring a motion to the council demanding a full investigation into this crisis, which will include, but not be limited to, engaging the national government on a long-term solution.
Clrs Michael Crichton and Faeeza Chame
