Johannesburg — The City of Johannesburg confirmed that more than 50 000 households will be left with little to no water on Wednesday 21 February, due to an emergency shutdown.
Johannesburg Water (JW) said they would be repairing a water pipe along Empire Road in Parktown. The shutdown was implemented at 6am and is expected to run until 6pm, leaving many residents without water for up to 12 hours. The city confirmed more than 50 000 households and businesses across the city will be affected by Wednesday’s repairs, EWN reported.
The main reservoirs and water towers among that will bear the burden of the repairs include Brixton, Berea, Parktown, and Hursthill, among others. Johannesburg Water said the benefits of this the shutdown include an improvement of service delivery, continuation of water supply, and a more accurate billing.
Although some residents will have some sort of water supply, those left with dry taps will have an alternative supply provided to them in the form of water tankers.
The Citizen reported that Ward 99 councillor and Shadow Minister of Infrastructure, Nicole van Dyk, said JW has effectively gone broke.
“Most of the city’s entities are struggling. Last year, JW had an underfunded budget of R80b and did not have a plan for where to source the funds.” she said.
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She said it was important for the entity to receive revenue from the provincial government and treasury, while also relying on rates and taxes from residents. Non-paying customers are often a result of an ailing economy.
The lack of funds results in less cash for operational costs and investment in expenditure projects, meaning old and ailing infrastructure do not get fixed or replaced timely resulting in leaks and faults.
JW spokesperson, Nombuso Shabalala, said there is an infrastructure renewal backlog running into the billions, with the main reasons being underfunding.
“Just like other City of Johannesburg entities, JW has a serious problem of non-paying customers who owe the city millions. JW is owed by customers more than R29.1b as of December 2023. Added to that are issues of illegal connections and theft and vandalism of the infrastructure which sets the city back financially.” Shabalala said.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
