Another week of the water crisis that has gripped Johannesburg could result in businesses shutting down and people losing their jobs. 

This was the view of the business sector as large parts of the city are in their second week of no water supply while others are still recovering slowly. The problem extends to the Vaal while Ekurhuleni and Tshwane have raised concerns over high water usage due to the current heatwave. 

“Businesses make provisions in time, but if it [water crisis] continues it will have a negative impact on the economy. If businesses don’t generate income they tend to let people go and they also don’t want to suffer financially. This means that more people will lose their jobs and businesses will be forced to shut down," said Dennis Pretorius, CEO of the Chamber of Business in the West Rand yesterday. 

He said they had received several complaints from their members who were now using their profit to stock up on water. “The municipality is unable to supply, and the water tanks they provide are not enough.”

He said Rand Water informed them last week that due to bad weather they couldn’t pump water for two days. “So, due to heat wave, the water that was entering the system was less than the consumption. So, there was no water coming in, resulting in many areas left without water,” said Pretorius. 

Bernadette Zeiler from Johannesburg Business Chamber said they had received more than 10 complaints from their members last week.

 “Some businesses are affected in a bad way, some are forced to close as they don’t have water and others operate half-day.”

She proposed that the city hire experts to deal with the water crisis. 

“Water is essential, businesses need water to operate and if the water crisis continues further the economy of the country will be negatively impacted. Johannesburg plays a major role in the country’s economy, so if more businesses close due to the water crises, the economy will be negatively impacted,” said Zeiler. 

Mark Baird, who runs a hair salon shop in Blairgowrie, Randburg, lost close to R20,000 in the first week of not having water. His suburb lost water supply on March 3.

He said during the first week water returned but only lasted for an hour. During this period they filled up close to 10 big drums with water.

“The water came back yesterday [Tuesday] and we are unsure if it’s going to go away again, so we just filled up the drums once again to be sure. We can’t afford to go another week without customers. We thought we could be fine and manage with the blackouts but we were not affected by the water outages as well. It’s very difficult to stay afloat,” said Baird. 

He added that because of the uncertainty of water they kept rescheduling appointments with their customers.

“So, eventually they gave up on us and they went to other salons in Sandton or Fourways, the places that weren’t affected by the lack of water,” said Baird. 

His salon relies heavily on water as the types of chemicals they use need to be washed away immediately and constantly. “We can’t tell our clients to wash their hair at home,” said Baird. 

His neighbour, a dry cleaning shop, had to take a customer’s clothes home to wash them as he couldn’t do any washing at his store. 

A man who runs a water supply shop in the area said although his business was busy, he wasn’t making a profit. 

“Because the water runs out here at my store, I would have to drive 20km three times a day to fetch the stock from my other shop to fill up this one. I had to go up and down three times last week and I would not call it a profit because I was using more petrol on travelling,” said the businessman.

Joburg’s water woes started two weeks ago when lightning hit Eikenhof pump stations, which supply water to most parts of the city. On Tuesday, the city said it was focusing on critical reservoirs – Linden 1, Linden 2 and the Blairgowrie systems – which remained critically low while Kensington B was recovering slowly. 

On the same day, on Tuesday night, Joburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda had to cancel a community event to call for an urgent meeting with ward councillors in affected areas. On Wednesday, the city was still not sure when full water restoration would be complete. 

Another resident in Blairgowrie said not having water was a big inconvenience. 

“The water came back last night but the pressure was so low that I was unsure whether or not it would not leave in the morning. I have two children, my youngest is a newborn and the other one is in primary. I need to come to this parking lot with buckets and bottles to fill up for my family and hope that the water returns before we run out. It’s hard because I need to make sure my children are fed, that they are clean and have the necessities,” said the resident.