Water Woes: Johannesburg Faces Shortages

Already dealing with frequent power outages, thousands of South Africans living in parts of Johannesburg now have to deal with water shortages, which some blame on the aging infrastructures.

People are now queuing up in areas where relief water tankers are being sent.

South Africa may be the most industrialized country on the continent, but access to basic services such as water and electricity is a recurring cause of anger for many of the estimated 62 million people-- a factor sure to play out in the upcoming general elections.

Johannesburg Water said its systems are improving and water will slowly flow back into the city’s taps.

This comes 10 days after the first of three power outages at Rand Water’s Eikenhof pump station that affected the water supply to the City of Johannesburg. Rand Water provides bulk potable water to more than 11 million people in Gauteng, as well as parts of Mpumalanga, the Free State and North West.

“Most reservoirs affected by the Eikenhof power outage have recovered and are supplying fairly to normal,” Johannesburg Water said in a statement. It warned residents that pipes could burst and leak as a result of the pressure of water on the empty system.

It said capacity levels had increased in the south of Johannesburg,but demand remained high in the Commando systems which include reservoirs in Hursthill, Crosby, Brixton, Lenasia and Orange Farm.

In the Sandton region, it said only the Bryanston tower was critically low because pumping was affected by an area electricity outage, while there were improvements at the Kensington B tower and Linden 2 reservoir.

The recent water crisis comes after the water board tabled its annual tariff increases in February.

Rand Water’s tariff document plans a basic increase to municipalities of 4.9% and another 1% increase on top of this to create a water demand management fund.