Bruma residents prepare to protest against Johannesburg's water crisis

Members of the Water Crisis Committee (WCC) are set to march in protest, demanding immediate action to resolve chronic water restrictions that have compromised the health and dignity of residents of Bruma, Kensington, Bez Valley, Malvern, and neighbouring areas, east of Johannesburg.

Some residents have endured over three months without a single drop of water in their homes.

This has been confirmed by Raven Singh, one of the leaders of the Water Crisis Committee, who has indicated that the water shedding and other water challenges are compromising the health and lives of residents, some of whom cannot even access the frequent delivery of water by water tankers.

Singh indicated that water infrastructure backlogs and other challenges have plagued water service provision by the Alexander Park Reservoir, with the committee reporting that some residents are on two to three months without water.

According to Singh, the community would gather today (Wednesday) at 6pm to map a way forward as they have engaged with Joburg Water for months to get the utility to intervene in their water challenges.

"Today, due to ongoing water challenges, we will gather as a community to map a way forward as we only have water for a few days, and Joburg Water sometimes supplies only parts of our area while other parts have gone for over three months without a single drop of water. When we seek solutions, we are told that we are consuming more than the city can afford. We are also given the excuse that we are living in a water-scarce city," he stated.

He added that despite water tankers being made available to serve the community, this is not enough, as some residents are elderly and are unable to access water due to the distance, while those who are at work sometimes miss out on the service.

"We have elderly community members among us, and they cannot access water tankers due to the distance, and some of us are working and are unable to benefit from the service. In fact, receiving water from tankers lacks dignity; we want water in our homes."

In a recent protest organised by BuildOneSA outside Malvern Clinic, community members decried the constant water supply interruptions, with one community member calling on the government to intervene.

Nobuhle Khoza from Malvern, where water shedding has become the norm, said the government needs to intervene in the crisis.

"We are suffering as we do not get water regularly, and we want the government to do better, as water is a basic human right.  Almost every week, we struggle with water, sometimes it takes over two weeks before we get running water back again," she said.

Attempts to get a comment from Johannesburg Water were unsuccessful at the time of going to print. However, the water supplier in their recent statement indicated that the water challenges in the area were due to its systems being impacted by varying network challenges, primarily due to high demand exceeding available capacity.

"Further to the network challenges, Johannesburg Water's systems performance was also impacted by power failure at the Eikenhof Pump Station, followed by the total power failure at Emfuleni’s substation, which impacted pumping from Rand Water’s Forest Hill and Eikenhof systems.

"The power supply issues have been restored, and this allowed Rand Water to start pumping. This incident, however, contributed to the depletion of some of Johannesburg Water’s reservoirs and affected the following systems: Eikenhof system - (Johannesburg Central, Randburg/Roodepoort and Soweto systems) Forest Hill system: (Forest Hill, Hector Norris, Crown Gardens, Yeoville, Berea, Eagles nest, Glenvista and Kibler Park)," Johannesburg Water said.

siyabonga.sithole@inl.co.za