While Joburg battles for water tankers, they’ve been failing at informal settlements for years

As Johannesburg’s water crisis deepens, residents have been struggling to access tankers, which often don’t meet demand and arrive intermittently, if at all. In Patsing, an informal settlement in Joburg South, this has been the reality for years.

“Water tanks were meant to ease the crisis, yet each delivery turns into a battlefield where neighbours fight for drops instead of finding relief,” Patsing resident Lilian Rapotsane told Daily Maverick on Tuesday morning.

Patsing has no running water. Residents survive on JoJo tanks filled by water trucks.

“The situation is still very bad here,” said resident Mlindeli Siwela.

“It’s an insult to the poor,” said Easter Mofolo. “Every day, people fight for this water, and the city and government call that progress. Heartless, they deny the crisis even as it unfolds before their eyes. No matter how loudly you shout, they refuse to listen.”

“The plastic tanks cannot be a substitute for running water,” Mofolo said.

A significant number of communities across Joburg are now battling for access to water tankers, a struggle previously mostly confined to informal settlements, as the city’s water crisis continues.

Read more: Joburg Water confirms unprotected strike as Day Zero crisis deepens

“As this crisis deepens, the way water tanks are being used is actively making things worse. When tanks are not filled properly or consistently, people are forced to fight for water,” WaterCan executive manager Dr Ferrial Adam told Daily Maverick on Tuesday.

“We are seeing this in Patsing and Waterworks, and in Delmas, where a dispute at a water tank ended with someone being shot and killed. That is the human cost of normalising failure,” said Adam.

An elderly man was reportedly killed by his neighbour on the same property in Delmas, Mpumalanga, this week when he tried to reach a water tank on the neighbour’s portion of the property.

“In informal settlements especially, government has to move beyond tankers and invest in sustainable water supply, including properly planned boreholes and reliable local systems. You cannot run a city or protect public health through water trucks,” Adam said.

As the crisis deepens, stopgap measures cannot replace real solutions.

“We cannot keep responding to systemic failure with temporary fixes that leave communities unsafe, angry and desperate,” said Adam.

Calls for national disaster declaration

“The water crisis must be declared a national disaster,” said Adam.

“If government can call for a national disaster on the impending day zero in Western Cape, then they should do the same here. The difference is that we have an infrastructural day zero.”

DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga supported the call.

“Declaring the poor supply of water in South African municipalities, particularly in Gauteng, a national disaster is warranted due to the severe impact on human life, economic activity and overall well-being,” he told Daily Maverick on Tuesday.

According to Msimanga, Gauteng’s water scarcity is a double threat. It endangers South Africa’s economic engine and, with the country’s highest population density, the crisis is magnified.

“Therefore, declaring this problem a national disaster should allow for the unlocking of national funds and expertise to address the crisis, while agitating for the streamlining of efforts across government spheres and stakeholders and the fast-tracking of infrastructure repairs, water conservation and equitable distribution,” Msimanga said.

“The declaration would acknowledge the severity of the situation, galvanising action to restore reliable water supply and ensure the well-being of Gauteng’s residents.”

Read more: Civil society body calls for Joburg’s water crisis to be declared a national disaster

Msimanga said water tanks had always been a stopgap measure; however, with the deepening crisis, Msimanga said the government needed to revisit the initiative.

“Worryingly we are now seeing drastic increase in the usage and this coming with a very high cost, not only from a financial perspective, but we have seen in certain instances where existing municipal water infrastructure has been deliberately and severely damaged, this to push for more demand for these water tankers, compromising the state and integrity of the infrastructure and causing immeasurable inconvenience to residents,” Msimanga said.

“Government should revisit this initiative, analyse the costs and relook at prioritising infrastructure maintenance and guarding to ensure that we can guarantee uninterrupted provision of good and clean drinking water to citizens,” Msimanga said.

In December, the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Johannesburg declared invalid a tender amounting to more than R200-million awarded to two companies to provide water tankers. The companies did not have their own trucks, and the court suspended the order for 150 days for the city to re-run the tender process.

The national government recently declared a state of disaster in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape due to drought. Water supply issues in many municipalities are exacerbated due to infrastructure decay.

Read more: Nobody cares, rage Joburg residents as water outages worsen

Waterworks

Waterworks, an informal settlement in Joburg South, has also never had running water.

“It’s very rare that they fill all tanks in a day. Sometimes they skip a day or two, but after six months, we don’t get water for almost a week,” said community leader Gugu Shelemba.

DA PR Councillor Maureen Mnisi told Daily Maverick, “Every day I receive water complaints from the residents of Waterworks.”

“I am trying to build a case for the people of Waterworks for them to also have running water.”

Mnisi confirmed that on some days, the tankers didn’t arrive. “When this happens, residents are left completely stranded without any access to water.”

When Daily Maverick arrived in Waterworks recently, a huge crowd of community members scrambled for water being delivered to a single tank. The tank has no lid.

“Despite this serious health risk, residents have no alternative but to consume this water because water is essential for human survival,” Mnisi said.

“It must be placed on record that all JoJo tanks in Waterworks and surrounding areas are inadequately serviced, if at all,” Mnisi said.

Another water tank in Waterworks is placed next to a huge and filthy dumping area. The city is currently digging a borehole in the area. The City of Johannesburg and Joburg Water did not respond to requests for comment. DM