Residents take to streets over lack of water

Fifty-three days. This is how long residents of South Hills, southern Johannesburg, have been without water.

Frustrated by the prolonged issue, yesterday they took to the streets, drawing attention to a problem they have been complaining about for weeks. One resident, Mbuso Mbatha, said the councillor has been in back-and-forth communication with Joburg Water but this hasn’t yielded any positive results.

“We ’ve been having an issue of water here for almost two months now and some of the low-lying areas have water but at a low pressure while the upper areas don’t have water at all.

At times water will come back at night for two hours at most but it rarely does,” said Mbatha, adding this has caused them to stage a protest. He said their ward councillor, Faeeza Chaine, had told them there was problem with the reservoirs of Rand Water.

“But now Joburg Water is telling us about valves that have been closed; you can’t tell me that you cannot solve th eissues of valves within 53 days. What they’re saying doesn’t make sense,” said Mbatha.

He said personal experiences differ from home to home but it’s the same problem.

“Without water you can’t even do the basics and what’s worse is that there are people who are sick, who can’t carry the buckets to and from water tankers,” Mbatha said.

On Tuesday, senior operations manager at Johannesburg Water, Logan Munsamy, said some of the problems at South Hills were caused by power dips and equipment trips at pumping stations.

Another resident, Riette Brown, said the water crisis has cost her unnecessary expenses.

“I have been withou twater since September 13 and they ’re doing nothing.

“I have to travel to my daughter ’s home to do the necessities and to bath. When I am not doing that I pay R55 per load of  laundry and I have to buy mostof my water because the water from the tanks is filthy, that water can only be used for toilets,” said Brown.

Brown said it was unfair that residents are billed for water they do not have regular access to. Jabu Zulu said it was unfair for the community to have to constantly complain for the municipality to do their jobs.

“I have to carry 25-litre of water up and down stairs because I live at the top level and even then water isn’t enough. 

“The tankers don’t even come every day and when they do come we often don’t know they are here. It’s very unfair, most children have to stay away from school because they haven’t bathed in days. We have to buy water... which is expensive and unnecessary, but it’s a must now,” said Zulu.

Chaine noted that the residents most impacted by the water shortage live near the reservoirs, particularly in high-rise areas.

“According to Joburg Water, it is a matter of high demand. There is a problem with the Mayor ’s Hill reservoir as it hasn’t been in operation in al ong time, so the South Hills reservoir gets fed from the Southern Klipriviersberg reservoir but the demand is quite high and because of that this is the situation that we arein now,” said Chaine.

Chaine said the problem identified by Joburg Water involves closed valves in the area.

“Joburg Water said to us there might be a solution because they have noticed a few valves that are closed but now the question is why do they only find out now after 53days and that is if the problem is truly the valves,” said Chaine.

Joburg Water has since been in the area since Tuesday trying to identify the problem, mostly focusing on the valves and fire hydrants in the area.