Johannesburg's water crisis: Residents demand urgent action

Johannesburg residents continue to endure prolonged water outages, with taps running dry across multiple suburbs for weeks, sparking protests and mounting calls for accountability from the city and Rand Water.

Civil society groups, opposition parties, and affected communities have warned that the crisis has reached a breaking point.

WaterCAN, a civil society organisation advocating for clean and sustainable water services, said the crisis was the result of years of neglect and poor planning.

WaterCAN’s Ferrial Adam said: "The Constitution guarantees both the right to water and the right to protest, but government is failing on both fronts. Communities are going weeks without water when the law says they should never face more than seven days of interruption in a year. That is not a glitch; it is a breach of the law.

"When people stand up and demand their rights, they are met with rubber bullets instead of solutions. This pattern of violent policing shows a state that would rather silence communities than fix broken water systems.

"The government cannot continue to hide behind excuses. It is their legal duty to provide water and to respect the right to protest. Water is not a privilege. Protest is not a crime. Both are constitutional rights, and right now, the government is failing on both."

Adam added that throttling and overnight closures are not solutions.

"They are band-aids that risk doing more harm than good, especially with Johannesburg’s ageing pipes. Engineers warn that constant stop-start pressure weakens the system further. Residents are being made to carry the burden of mismanagement. The truth is, Joburg Water has the technical plans to fix the Commando System.

"What they don’t have is the political will and the money being ring-fenced to get it done. The New Brixton reservoir and tower, the Hursthill 2 reservoir, and a new Crosby pump station could dramatically improve supply within a year or two if the city simply released funds and paid contractors on time.

"Instead, projects are stalled, contractors walk away unpaid, and communities suffer. The cost is not just financial; it is the daily indignity of living without reliable water. The structural fixes are known, achievable, and urgent. What is missing is leadership and accountability from the City of Johannesburg."

She added that the city’s failure to provide consistent communication and timelines was fuelling public anger.

"People cannot live without water, and the lack of transparency from officials is unacceptable."

The Joburg Crisis Alliance (JCA), a coalition of civic and community groups, echoed these concerns, saying the city’s water infrastructure had been deteriorating for years without proper investment.

"What we are witnessing is the culmination of systemic neglect," the JCA said in a statement. "Residents are being forced to buy water or queue at tankers, while officials continue to make excuses. This is a human rights issue."

Opposition parties have seized on the crisis, pressing for urgent intervention.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) said the outages were a direct result of mismanagement.

"The reality is that Johannesburg’s water infrastructure has been crumbling for years. The city cannot continue to blame Rand Water alone. It must accept responsibility for its own failing systems."

The party called for an independent audit of Johannesburg Water and for the release of a detailed recovery plan.

"We are demanding accountability. Residents need clear answers on when water will be restored, and what steps are being taken to prevent a repeat of this disaster."

Mayor Dada Morero apologised for the outages, citing technical issues at a pump station affecting the Commando system.

"We do apologise to all our customers for the inconvenience this has caused, mainly in Ivory Park and in the south of Johannesburg," he said.

"That forces us to do a bit of throttling here and there, and that throttling affects a lot of communities. Technicians at Joburg Water are working 24 hours to get the system to recover much quicker."

Morero promised that water would be restored within seven days.

"There are interventions that we are implementing. They’ve started showing us signs of progress because we started yesterday, and today we already see some slight improvement on the system from the 20% that it was sitting at in the morning to 27% this morning. So it is a process… eventually we’ll be able to get the system back."

The Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) confirmed that protests had broken out in several suburbs over the water shortages.

Spokesperson Xolani Fihla said officers had been deployed to monitor the demonstrations and ensure safety. "We are aware of community frustration, but we urge residents to remain calm and not resort to violence," Fihla said.

Rand Water spokesperson Makenosi Maroro said they were pumping at full capacity.

"We work closely with our customers to ensure a sustainable water supply. We meet with the three metros daily to discuss water demand, supply, and other related matters."

The JCA said it would intensify its campaign for accountability, including possible legal action. "If the city and Rand Water cannot fulfil their constitutional duty to provide water, then we will pursue every avenue available to protect our communities," the alliance said.

Meanwhile, residents in areas such as Brixton, Hursthill, Crosby, Coronationville, and Westdene have reported going for more than three weeks without running water. Many have had to rely on boreholes, private suppliers, or costly bottled water.

mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za