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Joburg residents living with loadshedding and water crisis

by Salaamedia Intern
Johannesburg resident must now face two misfortunes, loadshedding and water outages Photo Pexels

Johannesburg – While the country suffers from loadshedding, some parts of Johannesburg have to deal with two misfortunes. Massive water outages have hit parts of Johannesburg and now residents have to live without electricity and water. 

New Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero has promised to solve the problem but while he does that, councillors are being bombarded by residents for answers. With no answers, Rashieda Landis, Ward 55 councillor, and other councillors already feel let down by Morero.

“It is very difficult for us as councillors on the ground to report back to the community at large because we are not getting truthful answers coming from the higher ups. That makes us feel that we are useless, as the community call us, but we persevere.”

The mayor set an agenda to go visit all the reservoirs experiencing problems to understand what is going on. However, after visiting his third reservoir he decided he knew the “gist” of the problems. 

“On his third visit to one of the reservoirs he decided that he had a gist of the problem but it’s not necessarily that we have the gist of the problem because we’re not sitting in those meetings. Then he goes on to say that the water crisis is not a crisis. How do you say that it is not a crisis when people don’t have water for four to seven days?”

 

Solutions to the water crisis

Although solutions to the water crisis were promised, they were not revealed to the councillors. It took the mayor four days to give any possible answers, said Ward 54 councillor, Cllr. Stuart Marais. Not having anything to tell residents or telling them the same thing over and over has caused unnecessary frustrations.

“Only on Wednesday morning did they come out with an array of answers. For the first four days they were just telling us water restrictions, or the consumption is too high, and we’ve got to reduce it. There was no end goal. When will it be sorted out, what is the plan of action, we’re going to be doing this so the system can improve and that was very frustrating. I kept on hammering and saying guys I can’t send out a copy and paste letter to my people.”

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Loadshedding cannot be blamed for the water crisis

The water crisis has been blamed on loadshedding multiple times. With no power, it is hard to run the water treatment facilities. With the frequency of loadshedding, it is easy to believe this  is the cause. However, Landis believes this is far from the truth. 

“I don’t think that is at loadshedding problem at all. First and foremost, they’ve blamed it on the Zuikerbosch purification plant. That is pumping at full capacity. Our dams are full. So now why don’t they come to the table and tell us the truth because if Zuikerbosch is pumped to full capacity, our dams are full then what is the next problem?”

For Stewart, the problems lie in the way the reservoirs are being filled or lack thereof. Water is also being restricted while residents are being told to reduce consumption. This is baffling to Stewart as residents are not getting any water in the first place so they can’t actually reduce consumption.

“They put it out to say that some of the reservoirs were empty and we know they’re restricting the amount of water they’re sending us. They were saying to reduce consumption. The residents weren’t having to reduce the consumption because there was no consumption. I feel the downline reservoirs are empty. They’re not filling them up at a quick enough pace.”

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The other available solutions   

With a lack of options and solutions, it seems as if residents will either have to come up with one or be stuck without water. This does not sit well with Landis who feels a meeting must be held with the mayor and Rand Water so some clarity can be attained.

“I quite frankly feel that we should go to his office and demand a meeting with him and Joburg Water and Rand Water. They must put us around a table and explain to us in order for us to explain to our constituents, our residents and tell them the true story. They are the paying customers of Johannesburg. This is not a free service. They are paying for it so they’ve got a right to know the truthful answers and the truthful solutions to it.”

The use of tankers to deliver water is not a long-term solution. Other    long-term solutions  ate not forthcoming. For now, it seems as if affected residents will have to continue to live without electricity and water for the foreseeable future.

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