WaterCAN urges disaster declaration as some Joburg outages run into weeks

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