Joburg dry taps: week of 'hell' for residents and business owners

The past week has been described as “a week of hell” by residents and business owners in large parts of Randburg who spent almost eight days without water. 

Café Duarte Continental Bistro owner Duarte Pereira, speaking on Monday, said water outages had added to the stress of running a business on a generator during load-shedding and other power outages.

They hadn't had water for seven days, and though there was pressure on Monday, he wasn't sure if it would continue. 

“We have been getting water from a borehole, but you can't use borehole water for everything. You can use it to wash the floor and we then have to buy spring water or mineral water,” he said. 

Last week it cost him more than R3,000 to buy water to make coffee and simple meals and wash dishes. 

“You won’t use borehole water to make that. You have to use safe water. Financially it affects you. It also affects your staff.

“It is a stressful environment to work in and now you're adding [to it]. You have no power — using a backup generator because it comes at a cost and now you have these water outages. 

“Your mental health is affected, it costs you financially and you can’t operate normally,” he said. 

The owner of three restaurants in the centre said in a normal environment one would walk into a business where they have electricity and water.

“If you don’t have those two basic needs, then it is a problem. Fortunately, we have a good landlord who has been taking a truck every day, filling up with water and bringing it to the centre at his cost,” he said. 

Bordeaux North Residents Association chair Mogale Malatji said it has been a week of frustration. They thought the problem would only last a few days, but it went on for  a week.  

“Even now some streets might get a little bit of water pressure, but most don’t have any water,” he said, adding most residents have containers of water. 

“In my house we can’t take a shower, we have to use buckets and large containers to wash our children and to wash ourselves and flush the toilets with buckets of water.  

“The biggest issue is trying to get laundry done. We can’t do as much laundry as we normally do because we use a washing machine — but this is a frustrating situation, especially for children, because they change lots of clothes in a day,” he said.

A pensioner from Bordeaux, who did not want to be named, said it was difficult without tap water, and while there was a tanker doing the rounds it usually reached them in the evening.  

“It is not safe to be walking the streets to collect water. I am unable to carry heavy large containers of water, and having to boil every drop is also expensive. 

“I cannot bath, flush a toilet, do laundry or clean, [which is] very unhealthy. Buying water to drink and cook with also is hard when on a limited pension. I cannot believe that after eight days the city is unable, or unwilling, to solve the issue.”

On Monday ward councillors in the Randburg area met Johannesburg Water and mayor Kabelo Gwamanda, seeking a solution to the problem. 

Ward 99 councillor Nicole van Dyk said some questions were not answered, including a permanent solution to power outages in Eikenhof's Rand Water pump station. 

“They told us Rand Water and Johannesburg Water have technical meetings daily where matters are discussed. The city is engaging the national government on certain interventions,” she said. 

Johannesburg Water technicians were investigating the problem at the Linden reservoirs. 

“Hopefully, we will hear an answer later today [Monday] as to what the problem is,” she said, adding water was coming into the system, but a lot of residents in a lot of suburbs were still not receiving it.

Johannesburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala said in affected systems such as Linden 1 and Blairgowrie reservoirs, Rand Water was providing additional supply to the system to boost pressure and volumes.

The system was expected to improve overnight.

“Johannesburg Water has also increased alternative water supply through water tankers, to the greater Randburg area, working with ward councillors in the affected areas,” she said. 

Asked why the system has not been able to refill in certain areas, she said the Linden 1 reservoir and tower are the highest in elevation. 

“Meaning water will fill up low-lying areas first and high-lying areas last. The water systems are complex with many variables, such as pressure, flow and gravity.

“Technical teams from Rand Water and Johannesburg Water are reconfiguring the system. This is to boost supply as the pressure is poor and cannot reach the Linden 1 reservoir and tower, including Blairgowrie, until pressure improves substantially.

“However, this is the function of the bulk supplier system, which has not recovered enough to provide adequate pressure and flows into the Johannesburg Water system,” she said. 

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