Johannesburg Water said on Thursday that its systems had been affected by “various network challenges”, primarily because of the high demand exceeding available capacity. (Photo: Delwyn Verasamy)
The high court in Johannesburg was forced to temporarily shut its doors on Thursday because of the ongoing water outages affecting the city.
“Members of the public, court users and legal practitioners are advised that the Gauteng Division of the High Court, Johannesburg, will temporarily close at 11h00 on Thursday due to the ongoing water shortage affecting the greater Johannesburg area,” a statement from the office of the chief justice said.
Affected parties would be contacted regarding alternative arrangements for all matters scheduled on the court roll for the day, it added.
On Wednesday, bulk water supplier Rand Water warned that its systems were “dropping fast” because of extremely high water consumption by its customers, the cities of Johannesburg and Tshwane, as illustrated in weekly consumption figures.
“Rand Water continues to supply at maximum capacity, however, the storage is declining rapidly owing to high-water consumption … The upward trend in water consumption requires customers to implement interventions to bring consumption down.
“The consumption patterns observed from the City of Johannesburg … show an upward trajectory despite efforts to bring this consumption down,” it said.
It attributed the drop in consumption in mid-December 2024 to Rand Water’s maintenance efforts, noting that consumption “shot up immediately after the completion”. Equally, the City of Tshwane is “going the wrong way”, said the bulk supplier.
It called on Johannesburg and Tshwane to reduce their consumption to “avoid system collapse”, which would inevitably affect other customers as well.
“The water systems are interlinked and high consumption in one area impacts on the sustainable provision in other areas. Water conservation is a joint responsibility that must be observed and practised by all to ensure sustainable and equitable supply and provision.”
Electricity outages have worsened declining systems. On Tuesday, at 1.45pm, a total power supply failure at Emfuleni power sub-station affected Rand Water’s Vereeniging water treatment plant. It is completely reliant on power supplied by the Emfuleni local municipality.
According to Rand Water, the outage was caused by the failure of the municipality’s transformer. The power supply was restored and full operations resumed at 6.20pm. However, at 8.20pm, another power failure occurred, once again disrupting pumping.
This led to the depletion of reservoirs affecting customers supplied by the VVS system (Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark and Sasolburg), as well as the Forest Hill, Yeoville, Benoni and Eikenhof systems.
Johannesburg Water said on Thursday that its systems had been affected by “various network challenges”, primarily because of the high demand exceeding available capacity.
Further to the network challenges, the performance of its systems had been affected by the Emfuleni power failure. The power supply had been restored on Wednesday night, which had allowed Rand Water to start pumping.
“Rand Water has confirmed that both systems [Eikenhof and Forest Hill] are now pumping at full load.”
It is observing gradual improvement and, in some cases, recovery of certain parts of the systems, however, they are still under strain, leading to lower reservoir and tower levels.
“This may cause reduced water pressure, or in some areas, a complete loss of supply,” Johannesburg Water said.
For the past two weeks, residents across Johannesburg have faced severe water shortages, with “inadequate communication” from the city and the water utilities, said the nonprofit group, WaterCAN.
“This is no longer a short-term crisis but has become the standard way that the City of Johannesburg and … Johannesburg Water manage the water system. The situation is worsened by the lack of transparency and accountability from Joburg Water, city officials and … Rand Water.”
The water challenges over the past two weeks “have been mismanaged, with poor communication from Joburg Water and a complete lack of leadership from city officials”, it said.
“The real issue is our crumbling infrastructure, which urgently needs repairs and replacement,” said Ferrial Adam, the executive manager of WaterCAN. “Blaming demand is a weak excuse when people have had no water for days. The city must address leaks instead of relying on ineffective short-term solutions like water tankers.”
Joburg faces multiple crises across the water network every day, for various reasons. This makes it difficult for residents to understand why there is no water coming from their taps on a particular day, how long that will continue and when and where a water tanker might be available.
WaterCAN noted that Joburg Water has made an effort to put information on its X feed and welcomes this.
“However, much of this information is too generic to be of help. Many residents are not sure which reservoir or piece of infrastructure feeds their area and councillors do not always have this information either. Councillors struggle to get information from city officials.
“Clearer information is needed — for example, instead of Joburg Water telling us that reservoirs and towers are running low, it would be helpful to include explanations. Is there no water running into a particular reservoir from Rand Water or Joburg Water? Is a reservoir leaking? Is a tower just inadequate infrastructure for the population in the area?
It suggested that Joburg Water set up an online dashboard with enough information on it for residents to understand which infrastructure affected them and the state of the supply. This should be updated regularly — every few hours during crises.
“A central point of information would be helpful, rather than expecting residents to scroll through social media posts to find the relevant information.”
Since November 2024,Johannesburg Water has implemented water supply reductions and many areas have been experiencing low water for a few months.
“This week, Joburg Water issued information on the state of reservoirs with the supply in many described as strained due to high demand. However, it is unclear why some regions are continually low on water and why others are not. Is this a problem with management of the system?
“This is deeply frustrating for residents who have been without water for days — how can demand exceed supply when there has routinely been no water? Is supply constrained to all areas or only some?” it said.