Staff Reporter
Water advocacy group WaterCAN on Saturday urged government to declare Johannesburg a national disaster area due to widespread outages.
WaterCAN executive director Dr Ferrial Adam said communities including Kensington, Emmarentia and Meldene — supplied by reservoirs such as Hursthill, Alexander Park and Berea — have faced outages lasting days and, in some cases, nearly 20 days.
Parts of Midrand have had unstable, unpredictable access to water linked to balancing supply across the President Park, Grand Central and Eland reservoirs.
“Johannesburg Water has failed to provide a consistent supply or clear communication to residents, while Rand Water, as the bulk water supplier, continues to limit its engagement to its direct customers, despite the devastating impact on communities,” said Adam.
Adam’s call comes after the national government classified drought conditions in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape as a national disaster.
She said Johannesburg’s crisis — the result of infrastructure failure, poor planning and weak accountability was “no less severe”.
Adam warned the breakdown is fuelling tension at community level, with residents queuing for hours at water tankers and supplies running out before everyone can collect water, leaving vulnerable households at risk.
“When people are forced to compete for water, dignity collapses and conflict becomes inevitable.
“This is a direct consequence of inadequate planning, erratic tanker deliveries and the absence of clear rules or oversight at distribution points.”
Adam said a disaster declaration would help unlock emergency resources, enforce coordination across spheres of government and compel transparent public communication from both utilities.
“Where residents have been without water for nearly three weeks, the situation has already crossed the threshold of disaster.
“Treating this as routine maintenance rather than an emergency is both dangerous and irresponsible.”
Adam called for Johannesburg Water to issue daily, area-specific updates with realistic restoration timelines.
She said Rand Water should publicly explain bulk constraints and contingency measures, and national government should intervene “decisively to protect residents’ health, dignity and livelihoods”.
“Johannesburg is the economic heart of South Africa. Allowing it to function without reliable water access, without declaring a disaster, normalises suffering and signals a failure of governance,” Adam said.
INSIDE METROS