Coronationville residents battle unreliable water supply for almost 10 years: 'We believe it's going to stay bad' - resident

702's John Perlman chats to Coronationville resident, Shantel Da Gama.

Listen to their conversation in the audio clip below:

Coronationville residents in western Johannesburg have been battling an unreliable water supply for nearly a decade, with no clear end in sight, says resident Shantel Da Gama.

"Inconsistent water supply...we've been having this problem ongoing for eight years now in Coronationville, Westbury and surrounding areas."

- Shantel Da Gama, Coronationville resident 

"Some of our community leaders in our area had to finance their own boreholes or jojo tanks that can assist the community."

- Shantel Da Gama, Coronationville resident 

"It's been a struggle for us...it's bad and we believe it is going to stay bad. For the last few years, we've been hearing the same stories, the same excuses of no budget for this command system."

- Shantel Da Gama, Coronationville resident 

According to Johannesburg Water, the infrastructural issues with the command system, which supplies Westbury, Sophiatown, Coronationville, and the surrounding areas, are the cause of the years of staggered supply.

The utility says budget constraints have led to the water challenges faced by these communities.

Despite repeated promises and maintenance updates from authorities, the water infrastructure remains broken, and residents feel abandoned.

Frustrated by the lack of action, residents have held several protests. 

While these sometimes trigger a brief return of water, Da Gama says it’s often only in the middle of the night.

"We've been crying out, we've been protesting...it's not the first, second or third time we've been protesting. Everytime residents protest, suddenly there is a flow of water for the day or maybe just for a few hours. What they do is, they switch our water on during the night when normal people sleep. So, between 12 and 3 in the morning, the water flow will come through. We set our alarms for that time of the morning, so we fill up to make sure we have clean running water - we fill up bottles, the bath and whatever containers we can fill up so we can have water to cook, water to clean, wash...it's really been a struggle..."

- Shantel Da Gama, Coronationville resident 

"Our kids are deprived of education because there's no running water at the schools. We have two hospitals in our area, Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital and Helen Joseph Hospital, so you can only imagine what is happening at the hospitals because there is no water. We also have an old age home - a month or two ago, one of the residents' flats actually burnt down because there was no water to extinguish the fire."

- Shantel Da Gama, Coronationville resident 

ALSO READ: DA slams City's inaction as Joburg's water crisis deepens, threatens to take matter to Human Rights Commission 

Scroll up to listen to the full conversation.