Soweto residents hit hard by week-long water outage

Some frustrated Soweto residents say they have been without water for a week and when they demanded answers from Joburg Water the entity told them they also don't know the cause of the problem.

Meadowlands community activist Lovemore Khumalo said on Monday they went to Joburg Water offices for answers about their lack of water since last week Tuesday. 

“The leaders at the Joburg Water office are saying everything is running perfectly from their side, the valves are open and functioning well. They told us they also have not figured out as yet why we don't have water. 

“The sad part is that we are not getting any information; they don't don't know how long it will last or what seems to be the problem,” said Khumalo. 

Sowetan reached out to Joburg Water spokesperson Nolwazi Dlamini to understand what was cause of the water outage in Meadowlands. Though Dlamini said she was in meetings she however confirmed that they were investigating the matter. 

“The team is currently on site investigating. I'm still trying to get more information,” she said. 

While they have been provided with water tankers to help alleviate the problem, some say the vehicles are positioned far from their homes.

Business owner Paul Mtselu, 65, is one of the frustrated residents.

“This water crisis is affecting us a lot especially for my business because the tankers park far from our homes. I have to wait 40 minutes.

“This means I have to close my spaza shop and lose money; it feels like we are working backwards,” Mtselu said.

Other residents said they have had to contend with smelly toilets as there is no water to flush them. Parents, on the other hand, said their children have been turned back from school as there is no water.

Shirley Vilakazi, who runs a laundromat business from her Meadowlands home, said she has had to move to her sister's house in Dobsonville so she can use her washing machine and keep her business running.

Each day, the 49-year-old woman takes a taxi to Meadowlands to collect dirty laundry from her clients and lugs it back to Dobsonville to wash it. When she is done she, hops into another taxi to return it to the clients.

She said while having to take taxis every day was now hitting her hard in the pocket, she did not have a choice as washing people's laundry was her only source of income. She also supports her child who is at university.

“My business was on standstill and I decided to move to my sister's place to continue having it,” said Vilakazi. 

Sowetan sent questions to the Gauteng department of education to find out how many schools were affected by the water issue. They noted the questions but had not responded at the time of publication.

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