Climate change is raising the stakes, but Johannesburg’s failing water and fire systems remain dangerously unprepared.
It’s difficult to read of the battle to control the raging fires in the Western and southern Cape. Mother Nature can be cruel, but humanity’s indifference to climate change adds fuel to the fire (pun intended).
Reading it from Joburg just makes it worse. Until recently, the city did not have a functioning fire brigade, with far too few serviceable fire engines and tenders to make a difference if a building – or house – did go up in flames.
Some things have changed. The Randburg fire station, for one, has had a serviceable fire truck since last year after a considerable time of having nothing at all.
It’s reassuring for the residents, who don’t have to rely on the goodwill of fire stations several kilometres away with their own areas of responsibility.
But the more things change, the more they stay the same.
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Randburg has been beset by infrastructural problems – like much of the rest of the north of Johannesburg.
It’s tough enough when the reservoirs run dry because of maintenance issues with Joburg Water or its supplier, Rand Water, but it is a bitter pill when the ageing pipes burst and water gushes down the street, creating potholes at warp speed.
The disruption continues apace when Joburg Water’s back hoe loaders arrive and really tear up the surface to get to the problem – and then leave the hole open for weeks afterwards.
But, like hadedas, broom sellers and burglar alarms, they are just threads in the tapestry of Joburg suburban life.
Last week, though, was a leak too far – not one but two fire hydrants on Mackay Avenue, literally 300m down the road from the Randburg fire station, gushed water at a commensurate pressure for extinguishing infernos.
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The hydrants were less than 100m apart. Someone turned the closest one to the fire station off after a couple of days, but the other kept on pumping water straight into the storm drain for five days before someone pitched up to turn it off.
That someone was from Joburg Water. Parked next to them was a unit from the fire brigade’s aquatic safety unit – obviously in case the tap closer drowned in the process.
Sometimes Joburg doesn’t even make sense for those who live in it and love it. The only mercy is that we still haven’t burnt to the ground yet.
This year’s municipal elections will be highly contested, but whoever wins will have their hands full.
