IN PICS | Joburg residents, business owners protest city's prolonged water outages

Some Joburg residents and businesses are demanding that the water supply be restored after almost a month of braving dry taps.

People are protesting in different parts of the city on Wednesday as their taps remain dry.

Areas including Westdene, Parktown West and Emmerentia have been affected by the Johannesburg commando meter system, which has been facing supply challenges due to demand.

Melville residents have taken to the streets in protest over ongoing water outages, with some describing the situation as “day zero”–like conditions.

The protesters are accusing Joburg Water of applying temporary fixes instead of resolving deepening water supply failures.

Bridgette Von Oella, one of the residents, said it is time for water authorities to work with universities to find long-lasting solutions

“Why are we not looking at the two universities in the area that both have excellent engineering departments? Why are we not calling on them to come in? I'm sure that younger people have got great ideas. Can we just fix it and perhaps look outside of what the city can do? Because perhaps they don't have the capacity to do it.”

Civil society groups, including WaterCAN, have called for a national state of disaster to be declared, arguing the crisis requires urgent intervention.

However, Joburg Water has denied that the city is facing a system collapse, saying measures are in place to stabilise supply.

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