The City of Johannesburg continues to experience widespread water and sewage challenges across its 135 wards, with an average of approximately 2.3 water and sewer-related issues per ward per day, according to Ward 115 councillor Mark van der Merwe.

“That essentially works out to approximately 70 issues per ward per month. If I look at the history over the last 12 months in Ward 115, we have had around 10 issues per month.”

Van der Merwe admits that this places Ward 115 well below the norm in terms of monthly water- and sewer-related complaints. He said this abnormal reduction in reported issues is attributed to sustained infrastructure investment in the ward over several years.

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More than R150m has been invested in replacing the ageing water network across Jukskei Park, Johannesburg North, and Old Fourways. These upgrades have had a measurable impact on service reliability. “At one stage we had over 500 bursts in Old Fourways in just 18 months. Additionally, with the investment of over R48m in replacing the rising main sewer line in Craigavon, we will start to see less sewer line issues this year as well.”

Van der Merwe disclosed the information following concerns raised by Douglasdale resident Jirisha Naicker, who has complained about repeated water and electricity disruptions in the area.

Naicker said she has experienced months of service interruptions and remains frustrated by what she describes as a lack of clarity around the ongoing outages. “The outages have affected my daily life and my ability to work, and I just want clear answers on why this keeps happening.”

While Ward 115 has recorded comparatively low levels of water and sewer-related incidents, Van der Merwe acknowledged that neighbouring areas continue to face challenges.

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He said he is aware of multiple water supply disruptions along Crawford Drive, which falls under Ward 106. “There’s been quite a few water outages now in Ward 106, which is councillor Chris Santana’s ward, about five or six water outages in the area recently.”

He stressed, however, that he does not believe there is a systemic electricity supply problem in Douglasdale. “I live on that grid, and we’ve had maybe four or five [power outages] in the last six months. So, power outages I’m not worried about.”

Naicker said she has been logging every interruption since May, keeping detailed records of fault reports and reference numbers, in an effort to track the disruptions and seek accountability.

Both Johannesburg Water and Eskom were contacted for comment on January 2 and followed up with subsequently. At the time of publication, neither entity had responded.

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