Growing calls for water crisis to be declared a national disaster

The People's Water Forum says tough decisions need to be made to deal with South Africa's water supply issues, including putting in place water restrictions.

The forum, which is made up of several civil organisations, held a media briefing at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

It comes after many parts of Gauteng experienced a water shortage crisis, which lasted for over two weeks.

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While Gauteng’s recent water crisis has started to subside, with affected areas being reconnected and reservoirs filling up, the People’s Water Forum said the root problems had not been addressed.

This includes preventable issues like ageing infrastructure and natural disasters like droughts and water scarcity.

Ravin Singh from Johannesburg’s Water Crisis Committee said the issue of high consumption would have to be dealt with at some point.

“Our own thinking down the line, and people need to be honest, we need hard restrictions in the City of Johannesburg until we fix the water situation. But government must enter into a process of consulting communities before you go down that road.”

Ferial Adam from WaterCAN said people needed to understand South Africa is a water-scarce country and act accordingly.

“And we have to start asking the very uncomfortable questions, should we all be having a swimming pool in our yard - that’s probably not the way to go.”

The civil organisations are calling on government to declare the persistent water challenges a national disaster.