Business, residents panicking about water cuts

Some residents and business owners from Soweto have called on Joburg Water to ensure that it provides them with enough water for the next four weeks as the water utility undertakes extensive maintenance to its infrastructure. 

They said they were concerned  what the effect the planned water interruptions will have on their businesses as well as day-to-day living.

Despite Logan Munsamy, Johannesburg Water general manager, stating that the interruption was not a sign of  a water crisis but just a planned maintenance, residents are panicking over whether they will be supplied with enough water for the four weeks.

“I must stress to the residents that this is not a total shutdown, it is a reduction of water flow. We are mitigating a combination of stationed water trucks and JoJo tanks to certain key spots in our distributing networks to be filled up as well as supplemented," said Munsamy.

“Eikenhof is the largest portion of our distribution networks. A total of 85 water trucks will be deployed to the various areas. We will deploy 250 Jojo tanks in much-needed areas like schools, hospitals, clinics and police stations,” he added.

“We are recommending to residents that although we will deploy water tanks, they need to store up in reasonable quantities, not solely rely on water trucks. This is not a crisis, there is no need to panic, but for the convenience of having water in the house we are encouraging them to store up more water for themselves,” Munsamy advised.

However, some residents complained about the reliability of those Jojo tanks and water trucks. They were also worried about whether there would be enough for each community.  

“Here in Soweto, I have never seen Jojo tanks being distributed. In the past we have had to wait for the water to come back but it was sometimes too white or came out brown every morning meaning we had to boil it first. So, we cannot be sure that this water will come back clean and will not harm us as we consume it,” said Jabulile Mthimkhulu, a Dlamini resident.

Rand Water began a four-week  extensive maintenance of their infrastructure at Eikenhof Pumpstation from June 24 and it was expected to end on July 29.

According to  laundry business owner Zanele Thabede, this may negatively affect her business, which she has been running since February last year.

“It is going to be a struggle because what if I receive more costomers since it’s winter and people wear more clothes and are lazy to do their own laundry? This means I will not be able to render efficient services to my clients because I will not have consistent water,” said Thabede. 

She was also more concerned about her profit in terms of having to buy more containers to store water since she conducts her business at home.

“Joburg Water is doing a number on my laundry business as they will be doing their maintenance for four weeks. I am going to have to fill up more buckets, meaning I need to purchase more containers because I don't have enough to cover myself and my business for this period,” she continued. 

“The problem is that they do not do regular service on their water pipes on time, they wait until things get destroyed or cause harm to the public. I believe that is the reason we are facing this water crisis; they cannot gamble with our needs. They are ignorant and they don’t care about us,” said Thabede.

Another resident said they were not told on time about the maintenance and its effects.

Mbongiseni Sithole 64, a resident from Dlamini said “This will affect us a lot because water is our life, and we were not told on time about this issue of water maintenance."

However, Johannesburg Water spokesperson Nolwazi Dhlamini said they sent out information on time on their social media platforms and it was communicated with ward councillors on their group chats. 

“We have distributed the information on all our social media platforms as well as on our ward councillors WhatsApp group chat so that the councillors may share the information with the residents. We also have our SMS bulk line to all the residents who registered to receive the SMS,” 

Dhlamini said the maintenance will affect Randburg, Roodepoort, Sandton, Midrand, Soweto, Lenasia, Ennerdale and Orange Farm.