Scarce: Melville residents have warned Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda of legal action if the problem of water shortages is not resolved. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
The glasses of water from Berenice du Toit’s tap made her feel like she was drinking champagne.
This is because she and many of her neighbours in Melville, Johannesburg, had endured two weeks of either low pressure or no water at all earlier this month, until supply was finally restored late last week. For her, its return “felt like a miracle”.
“You live in that fear,” Du Toit, who shares a home with her daughter and nine-year-old grandson, said of the prolonged water outages. “Sometimes there is water but it’s just a trickle and the pressure is very low. I can’t fill my bath. Early in the morning, I put some laundry in the washing machine and then it suddenly stops and flashes: no water.”
During the outages, she used the rainwater collected in her JoJo tank to flush toilets, and ferried water home from either stationary tankers, a mosque in Auckland Park providing free borehole water or from a roaming tanker.
“I usually drive down to the garage to get water. I’m almost 80-years-old and you have to bend down and fill the container and get it into your car. It’s not easy,” Du Toit said.
Last Wednesday, rate-paying citizens from Melville sent a joint letter to Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda and Ntshavheni Mukwevho, the chief executive of municipal entity Johannesburg Water, warning that if the area’s water problems are not resolved, legal action is on the cards.
“We, the residents and businesses of Melville, are writing to express our deep concern and frustration regarding the ongoing water challenges that have persisted in our neighbourhood for the past 14 days,” the letter read.
It said the prolonged disruption to water supply was an “intolerable situation” which demanded immediate action from the mayor, the managing director and board of Johannesburg Water, the chief executive of Rand Water — which supplies the resource to the broader Gauteng province — and all other public servants who should address the crisis.
The residents said water was an essential resource and a fundamental human right in South Africa “that is vital for the functioning of our homes, businesses and livelihoods” and the lack of access to clean and reliable water had caused significant disruptions and hardships in the daily lives of residents.
Basic activities such as cooking, cleaning and personal hygiene “have become incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to carry out”, they added, while businesses had been severely affected, leading to financial losses.
Berenice du Toit. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Lack of transparency
Despite numerous attempts to seek information and updates regarding the water situation, the residents said there had been a noticeable lack of communication and transparency, from Johannesburg Water in particular.
They demanded the city address why the Hursthill reservoir was still critically low 14 days later, with no action or solution and for the municipal water entity to “to immediately stop announcing the restoration of water based on it being received by lower area residents’ recovery, with total disregard for the lack of water in higher-lying areas”.
They also urged that a planned shutdown by Rand Water affecting the Eikenhof pump station from 20 June to 22 June be postponed, pointing out: “We have not recovered from the shutdown on 1 June, two weeks later, and we cannot afford to be shut down for another two weeks.”
The letter said updates on the progress of repairs, estimated timelines for restoration and any necessary water rationing measures should be promptly communicated, noting that the recurring problem highlighted the need for long-term planning and investment in infrastructure.
“We urge the city to prioritise infrastructure maintenance and expansion improvements. This must include a plan for water leaks, and pipe bursts all over the city, spewing out varying amounts of water that are not attended to.”
Melville, Auckland Park and Parktown West are part of the areas supplied by the Hursthill 2 reservoir, which, together with Hursthill 1, are fed by Rand Water’s Commando Meter. It is supplied from the Eikenhof pump station where supply has been affected by the recent bulk infrastructure failure “as a result of power supply challenges”, Johannesburg Water said last week.
It said the Hursthill 2 reservoir had been running empty — that water coming in immediately went out — affecting supply to the high lying areas of the reservoir zones.
Last Thursday, an agreement was reached between Rand Water and Johannesburg Water that the bulk water supplier would feed an additional 100 million litres of water into the Eikenhof system from 6pm to 6am daily from 15 June to boost supply into the Commando system, which in turn would increase flow into the Hursthill 2 reservoir. Its outlet would then be closed from 10pm to 4am to fill up.
Rand Water’s planned maintenance shutdown has also been postponed until further notice, at the request of Johannesburg Water, “to provide relief to those areas that have been experiencing water supply challenges over the last few weeks”.
Melville resident Angelica Beukes, who lives in a home accommodating 12 people that is part of the Echo Youth Development programme, described Melville’s water outages as “community-building in terrible circumstances”. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Rand Water to blame
Nico de Jager, the Democratic Alliance’s Gauteng spokesperson for infrastructure development, blamed Rand Water for failing to secure a backup electricity supply, which had left many Johannesburg residents without the critical resource.
“The latest round of outages and the failure at the Orlando substation is evidence that Rand Water is failing to ensure an interrupted water supply,” he said.
Earlier this year, Rand Water indicated that it would have its own generators at pumping stations such as Eikenhof by June, he said, adding: “To date, there are no generators. Rand Water has gone silent on the matter.
“It is common knowledge that there are problems with electricity and that load-shedding is not going to go away. We cannot only blame Eskom when Rand Water does not maintain its electrical infrastructure. Residents are now going for weeks without water and this is unacceptable.”
Rand Water spokesperson Makenosi Maroo said the utility has three types of pumping stations. “So, we’ve got the primary one where we purify water so we don’t get load-shedding. But at the small pumping stations, we do have generators so they do kick in when we do have load-shedding. From time to time, we do get power trips and we have to call Eskom to come in.”
By Tuesday, Melville’s water woes looked set to continue. Johannesburg Water said a major reduction in supply from Rand Water had affected various reservoirs and towers, “which will affect customers with intermittent or no water supply”.
The affected infrastructure included the Berea reservoir, Waterval tower, Quellerina tower, Eagle Nest reservoir, Crown Gardens reservoir and tower and Hursthill 1 and 2 reservoirs.
Johannesburg Water said the “poor pressure to no water” conditions in Melville were caused by critically low levels at the Hursthill 2 reservoir.
“We have over the past few weeks experienced reduced supply into these reservoirs, mostly due to the vandalism of City Power’s Orlando substation, which feeds Rand Water’s Eikenhof pump station,” it said.
Although that has since been repaired, it is taking time for the system to recover because other reservoirs have also run dry and are gradually filling up.
“We are monitoring the recovery of the reservoirs and are providing alternative water tanking. There have also been some operational challenges, which we timeously experience from Rand Water , which affects these reservoirs, but we are in regular contact with the bulk supplier [Rand Water] to resolve such issues.”
(Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Mental anguish
Ferrial Adam, the executive manager of WaterCAN, an Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse project focused on water-related issues, is glad that Rand Water had had the sense to postpone its shutdown.
“If they didn’t, I seriously think people would have been up in arms,” she said. “The councillors live in the area so they are feeling it.”
But politicians and those making decisions in boardrooms don’t seem to understand what people are going through. “They’re not in tune with the psyche of the stressors — what’s been going on with power cuts and water cuts,” said Adam. “There are so many people in Westdene, Brixton and Auckland Park that don’t have cars to drive to the water tanks, that can’t walk with a drum to the water tanks.”
Melville resident Angelica Beukes, who lives in a home accommodating 12 people that is part of the Echo Youth Development programme, described Melville’s water outages as “community-building in terrible circumstances”.
“We’ve been able to kind of manage, but it’s frustrating. It’s like trying to live your life around load-shedding. Now you’re living your life around water as well,” she said. “There’s only so much you can do to plan for water outages. It does bring a level of anxiety because you could wake up today and not have water again.”