'Three more months': Johannesburg waits for water – the mayor sees no crisis

What happened

At a community meeting in Crown Gardens in the south of the city on Monday, Johannesburg Water CEO Ntshavheni Mukwevho said a short-term intervention at a pressure management station and faster response protocols should be completed within three months. Lasting improvement, he said, will require major investment in the network.

Suburbs such as Crown Gardens, Greenside, Northriding, Robertsham, Mayfair, Brixton and Melville have been hit for days. Bulk supplier Rand Water had asked the city to cut consumption by 15 percent immediately and restricted supply to municipalities exceeding their allocation.

According to TimesLIVE, Johannesburg loses about 32 percent of its water to leaks, and around 140 pipes burst every day. The infrastructure renewal backlog is estimated at 26.6 to 64 billion rand.

The mood on the ground

Mayor Morero apologised to residents but insisted that a crisis would only be declared at 'day zero', when the whole city runs dry. He partly blamed Rand Water and asked people not to use clean water for gardens and car washing.

In the affected suburbs, that wording lands badly. On Saturday several dozen residents protested outside Brixton police station after a week without tap water; one organiser told GroundUp her community was 'fed up'. The main complaints are poor communication from Johannesburg Water and tankers that arrive rarely and unannounced.

TimesLIVE describes how daily life has shifted: some residents get up at night to fill tanks because water, if it comes at all, flows between midnight and early morning. Those who can afford it spend thousands of rand on tanks and pumps; others carry water from boreholes. The call to save water meets bitter sarcasm: you cannot cut what you do not have.

Voices from the media