Residents of Emmarentia, Johannesburg, are thankful to their local mosques for being proactive amidst a nearly 10-day water outage in the area. They took to the streets on Tuesday, calling for water supply to be restored.
“We feel like we’ve been completely forgotten, it doesn’t get acknowledged that there’s a water issue in the area,” said Peter Volavsek, one of the organisers of Tuesday’s picket on the busy Barry Hertzog Avenue.
But there are some places where residents can be sure they will be able to access water. Those are at the mosques in the area, specifically the Greenside Mosque.
“The community’s been amazing. The mosque has been amazing. The mosques have opened up water from boreholes [and] community members have opened up water from boreholes,” he said.
Taps ran dry nine days ago. But this was not for the first time – in recent months, residents across the city have had to contend with frequent water outages as Rand Water and Joburg Water falter.
Volavsek said it was a blessing that some members of the community, especially mosques, opened their taps to the public.
“I go twice a day, physically, to the mosque with 5 litre bottles [and] 25 litre canisters to fill it up. It’s a godsend to have people like that actually supplying water. It’s not from Joburg Water!”
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[WATCH] Mosques step in to meet water needs
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“The community’s been amazing,” says Peter Volavsek, the community member who organised the water protest in Emmarentia.
He says the Greenside Mosque specifically has stepped in to supply water to residents from its borehole.
“The… https://t.co/Sqy6c0CCWT pic.twitter.com/w9ijq5Vnbn
