A severe water crisis continues to grip the communities of Claremont, Westbury, and Coronationville, with residents and advocacy groups expressing outrage over the city’s failure to meet its own deadline to restore a reliable water supply.
The Johannesburg Crisis Alliance has escalated the situation by publicly demanding the resignation of both the Mayor and the Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Water. The group has also called for the intervention of the President.
The crisis has left taps dry for weeks, forcing residents to rely on communal Jojo tanks and sporadic water tankers. The situation is particularly dire for vulnerable groups, including the elderly, young children, and infants.
A spotlight on the human impact of the crisis was highlighted at a retirement village in Coronationville, where elderly residents are struggling to perform basic tasks. Community member Debbie, who stepped in to help clean the now-filthy grounds, described the appalling conditions.
“No water for our old people here,” Debbie said. “The whole grounds has been filthy because it doesn’t get upkept, doesn’t get cleaned out… They’re struggling already with getting water from a Jojo tank or the trucks.”
Debbie and her husband, who run a small garden service, took matters into their own hands to assist the elderly residents. She highlighted the immense physical burden the crisis places on the aged, who are unable to lift heavy buckets of water needed for drinking, cooking, and flushing toilets.
“We’re looking at 77-year-olds, 80-year-olds… It’s not right,” she stated, emphasizing that while community members help when they can, they cannot be there to assist with every need.
The community’s frustration is compounded by broken promises from city leadership. The Mayor’s initial seven-day deadline to fix the water supply passed last Friday without resolution. The timeline for a solution has now been extended by another three weeks, a move that has been met with anger and disappointment.
“I was very disappointed when seven days came and we still had the same problem,” Debbie said. “We gave him the benefit of the doubt as a community. And then when he moved the goalpost further again… it’s just a sense of, how do you every morning wake up and there’s no water in your taps?”
With patience wearing thin, the community is now considering a return to protests. Debbie confirmed that residents are discussing taking to the streets again, a action they resorted to just three weeks prior to fight for what they call a basic human right.
The Johannesburg Crisis Alliance supports this growing sentiment, arguing that the city’s leadership has proven incapable of resolving the fundamental issue of water delivery. As the new three-week deadline looms, residents are left to wonder if their taps will ever flow again.
