Water crisis — Johannesburg skirts Day Zero for fourth time in a year
- A Daily Maverick investigation reveals thousands of water cuts in Johannesburg this year, raising fears of an imminent system collapse amid rising temperatures.
- Johannesburg Water admits 42 of its reservoirs are leaking, with only budget for repairs on 20, while new restrictions aim to stabilise supply.
- Areas like Brixton and Mayfair report multiday water outages, highlighting a broader crisis affecting substantial portions of the city's population.
- Experts question the management of the water system, citing inadequate maintenance and monitoring as key factors exacerbating the ongoing crisis.
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Government and water entities have commented on high demand due to the growing population and the warmer weather as we move into summer. However, the fact that so many reservoirs are leaking raises the question: is this issue really about high demand, or is it because nearly half of the reservoirs are leaking? It feels like we're being gaslighted!
The constant outages are certainly exacerbated by these leaks, along with throttling measures and shutdowns needed to allow reservoirs to refill. Additionally, Johannesburg Water has budgeted to fix only about 778km of the city's 12,000km of water pipes, which is another part of the challenge.
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Besides the obvious impacts on people's daily lives, it points to an ailing infrastructure. If the government doesn't set aside or ring-fence funds for water infrastructure, this problem will only worsen. Another concern is that as water cuts increase, there's growing advocacy for privatising water and water services.
There is now a dashboard tracking leaks, showing the number of leaks reported and fixed. We need to expand and improve this information to make it more user-friendly.
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