WaterCAN demands disaster declaration as Johannesburg water crisis deepens

Advocacy group WaterCAN has called for Johannesburg to be declared a disaster area following the deepening water crisis.

It says Joburg is facing widespread water outages, with areas such as Emmarentia and Parktown without water, in some instances for over 20 days.

The outages in these areas are a result of a crack at the Hursthill Reservoir 2, which Joburg Water says its teams have been working on since November last year.

WaterCAN Director Ferriel Adam says Johannesburg residents are living under the threat of "Day Zero."

"This is not a drought issue; it is a failure of infrastructure planning and accountability. Everyone has to take responsibility for the situation we’re in right now. People are now queuing for tankers, fighting for water, and the vulnerable are being left with nothing."

Parktown West resident Hermien Geldenhuys says her community has been without water for 21 days on Tuesday.

"We’ve been sitting with a similar problem—not to this extent—for 21 days, but this nightmare started two years ago simply because of our location."

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