Vandals, Maintenance Missteps Leave Swaths of Johannesburg Dry
(Bloomberg) -- Large parts of Johannesburg, South Africa’s biggest city, have been without water since late last month as reservoirs struggle to recover from scheduled maintenance and after criminals vandalized a key pipeline.
Taps have run dry in an area stretching 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Forest Hill in the south of the city of 5 million people to Craighall in the north, according to statement from the Democratic Alliance, which serves as the main opposition against the coalition that runs Johannesburg. Neighborhoods affected range from impoverished inner-city slums to some of the most affluent suburbs.
Rand Water, Africa’s biggest bulk-water supplier, carried out the maintenance over 48 hours, but the city’s utility — Johannesburg Water — has struggled to replenish reserves since. That’s led to supplies of bottled drinking water sporadically running out in supermarkets and sent the city’s richer citizens to shower in gyms in unaffected areas.
“It is likely that we are several days from normality,” the DA said. “There will be periods of water and no water,” with reservoirs probably closed “for the next few nights to allow levels to build up,” it added.
The outages are the latest sign of a water-supply crisis that’s affecting some of the country’s biggest cities because of inadequate maintenance, limited investment in infrastructure and poor management.
Last year, a large section of Johannesburg was left without water for as long as 11 days after lightning hit a pump station. Its water utility has a 26.9 billion-rand ($1.5 billion) infrastructure backlog, municipal documents seen by Bloomberg last year showed.
“Water supply won’t resume immediately, low-lying areas will see restoration first, while high-lying areas may experience longer delays,” Rand Water said in a July 2 post on X. “Thank you for your understanding and patience.”
Separately, people vandalized valves on Rand Water’s main Zwartkopjes pipeline in southern Johannesburg, the utility said after videos of water spouting tens of meters into the air circulated on social media. The damage caused the pipeline to burst when pumping resumed after maintenance. Repairs will further impact supplies, it said.
The utility plans more maintenance to infrastructure supplying Johannesburg on July 18.
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