Four weeks without water supply has angered residents of Munsieville and now they have decided to take to the streets.

The residents claim that while the country has been left in the dark due to increased stages of load-shedding, stage 6 power cuts has worsened water shortages.

They claim they have been without water supply for four weeks.

When Krugersdorp News arrived on scene, the residents were waiting for Mogale City Mayor Tyrone Gray to address their concerns and update them on when they would have water in their taps.

The residents told journalist Natasha Pretorius how apart from not being able to bath, they can’t flush their toilets or cook, and that there is no water at schools, old age homes or even the local clinic.

They also claim that the water provided by the water tankers was making people ill, which just added to the crisis.

One resident explained that she buys five litres of water every day so she could prepare bottles for her four-month-old baby. She also filled two 20l bottles with water to use for flushing and washing.

The issue is that some residents are unemployed and cannot afford to buy water or even food, and have to make do with what is provided to them.

“One week without water is a stage of panic but a month without water is unspeakable,” one resident said. He claimed that they had been told that the issue needed to be sorted out with the provincial government and that for this reason, they decided to close down the provincial road.

“Life right now has become a problem,” said another resident.

People have to walk far to fill their bottles and buckets, but many elderly residents cannot make the journey and have to rely on the water tankers that the municipality provides.

Even when they do get to the reservoir to fill their containers there are only two hoses with little water pressure. Many of them miss work or have to go in late every day so they can first fetch water.

Gray addressed the crowd and told them that a booster pump for the Dan Pienaarville reservoir was installed on Tuesday. The issue, as he explained, is that Krugersdorp’s main reservoirs get their water from the Roodepoort reservoir. During load-shedding they use generators to pump the water but the generators pump slowly. When people use water during load-shedding the main reservoirs’ levels drop from about 42% to 33%. When there is not enough water in that reservoir, the pressure drops, and that is why they installed the booster pump at Dan Pienaarville.

He explained the problem is that Rand Water cannot keep up with the supply because of load-shedding. Meanwhile, City Power is re-engineering its grid to see how they can isolate so they can keep Roodepoort pumping during load-shedding, and then Krugersdorp reservoirs will fill up too.

The booster pump will also help, but they cannot run the booster pump without water because it will fail.

Gray has asked Eskom and City Power how they can isolate the line to the Roodepoort reservoir. “In general, we are going to see more and more water-shedding across Gauteng,” he said.