Selby businesses have been hit hard by water outages that have worsened over the past few months. (Photo: Reitumetse Pilane) Cecil Kagan, CEO of furniture company Calgan Recliners, should be using revenues to buy new equipment, hire new staff and expand operations to compete with international competitors such as China. Instead, he’s forced to sink another R60,000 into drilling a borehole for the third time in the hopes of reaching a stable supply of water.
Kagan’s company is based in Selby, an industrial suburb in Johannesburg which has been battling an extended water crisis since as early as October 2025. On 7 April 2026, businesses were still facing an inconsistent water supply, with cuts lasting from a few hours to weeks.
For Kagan’s factory, which employs between 700 and 800 people, the lack of water causes day-to-day disruptions, including a lack of sanitary ablution facilities for staff. It also means the factory is no longer insurable.
“It cost us over R2-million to build a tank for the water so that we can retain our insurance policies. Otherwise the insurance won’t insure us. And you can’t run a business like this without fire insurance because if you do that, the banks won’t lend you the money to run the business because they’re at huge risk,” he told Daily Maverick.
/file/attachments/orphans/IMG_7706_194321.jpg "Drillers’ attempt to find borehole water as part of Cecil Kagan’s third attempt to source an independent water supply due to water outages in Selby, Johannesburg, that have worsened and affected his business over time. (Photo: Reitumetse Pilane)")
Kagan is not alone. The deepening crisis has raised the cost of business for many in the area, particularly on Trump Street. Further up the road, Chemosol, a printing business that employs 45 people and has been in the area for 40 years, has been without water for two months.
“A lot of our processing that we do, we’re washing screens,” explained Urnest Notlowitz, the head of finance at Chemosol.
“There’s a lot of stuff that we do that requires washing, and for that we need water. So we do use a lot of water in our production process, apart from the water that we are using for making tea and coffee and washing our hands and what have you.”
The business used to have its JoJo tanks filled for free by Joburg Water. But Notlowitz said that since the water crisis deepened across the city earlier this year, the tankers no longer come regularly. As a result, it has to spend R9,000 a week on 15 kilolitres of water to fill out the tanks and remain operational.
/file/attachments/orphans/IMG_7748_358940.jpg "A Selby business that relies on water for daily operations has been financially affected by worsening outages, because they have had to spend thousands each month to supply their own water. (Photo: Reitumetse Pilane)")
“It’s just an additional expense that we haven’t budgeted for. And it’s not part of our costing. We’re not charging people extra because suddenly we don’t have water. If you go and want to buy a cup of coffee at your favourite coffee shop, and they say, well, we haven’t had water for two weeks, we had to buy water somewhere else, now the coffee is double, you’re not going to go back,” Notlowitz explained.
Situation ‘unsustainable’
The city’s water supplies continue to crumble, largely driven by failing infrastructure and vandalism, resulting in nearly half of all clean water being lost to burst pipes and leaky reservoirs.
The official opposition party, the DA, has been sounding the warning bells since October 2025, when it said that up to 4,000 jobs are at risk because of the water crisis in Selby. At the time, businesses were already feeling the brunt.
A News24 report found that hundreds of staff members in Selby factories were without permanent work because of the impact the water crisis had on operational costs.
Yet, despite the spotlight on the issue, business owners have complained about a lack of clear communication from Johannesburg Water, which has affected their ability to plan around the crisis and conduct business.
Julian Gounder, the manager for 1 Stop Auto Glass, which offers windscreen repair and replacement services, said the water situation has worsened over the six weeks as the City has done repair work on infrastructure.
/file/attachments/orphans/IMG_7714_551605.jpg "The deepening water crisis has raised the cost of business for many in the area, particularly on Trump Street in Selby. (Photo: Reitumetse Pilane)")
“What we’ve heard is that there’s maintenance going on and that they shut off the water during the day while they’re busy with the maintenance. Sometimes when we get here in the mornings there is water. By like 9 o’clock it’s gone and it doesn’t come back on in the evenings. But it’s back on in the mornings,” he told Daily Maverick.
Gounder added that it hasn’t had a major impact on operational costs, but it has meant frustrated customers are unable to use the ablution facilities and staff are unable to clean themselves after handling messy products.
Notlowitz and Kagan both confirmed they have received no communication from Johannesburg Water about the situation. Another business owner in the area, Stewart Sande of commercial printing company Ren-Form, said the existing communication channels are unreliable.
“Johannesburg Water has introduced a WhatsApp-based tanker request system, but this remains unreliable. Tankers are often delayed, do not arrive, or fail to deliver as scheduled. Moreover, the lack of clarity around billing for these services makes accurate budget planning difficult,” he said.
He added that the current situation is “unsustainable and threatens long-term industrial growth”.
Kagan added that moving is not a viable option for many businesses – which means they either have to survive or go under.
“I don’t think any business has the money to move because it costs a fortune, an absolute fortune, especially when you’ve got between six and 800 people. So you can’t move anything when business is so bad,” he explained.
Previously, Johannesburg Water told eNCA that the in Selby crisis was caused by severe damage to a 900mm pipeline linked to the Hector Norris pump station and that repair work is ongoing. However, no completion date was given.
Daily Maverick asked Johannesburg Water for an update on the situation but had not received a response at the time of writing. DM
Additional reporting by Reitumetse Pilane.