Johannesburg’s ongoing water war
With Johannesburg still grappling with persistent water outages and failing infrastructure, WaterCan's Ferrial Adam emphasises the need for immediate action and collaboration.
Johannesburg is still battling an ongoing dry war against the water crisis, marked by persistent outages, crumbling infrastructure, and neglected maintenance.
Dr Ferrial Adam, executive manager of WaterCAN, emphasised the critical nature of the situation, stating: “Johannesburg is in the grip of a full-blown water crisis. Persistent outages, crumbling infrastructure, leaking pipes, and neglected maintenance are robbing communities of their most basic human right – Access to water.”
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Adam highlighted that the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) appears to be focused on ineffective solutions, such as disconnecting informal settlements and billing, rather than addressing the root cause of the crisis. “The city is struggling due to poor leadership and a musical chair of mayors,” she noted.
WaterCAN has raised concerns over the CoJ’s budget allocation for water and sanitation, noting that Johannesburg Water (JW) was allocated R17.657b for operational spending, but only R1.221b for capital expenditure in 2024/25.
Adam pointed out that JW has indicated a need for R3b for capital expenditure to address infrastructure failures adequately. “We demand an urgent adjustment to Johannesburg’s budget to solve the water crisis,” she declared, outlining the necessity of increasing JW’s capital expenditure budget to R3b for both 2024/25 and 2025/26. “The budget adjustment does not allocate more to JW to deal with infrastructure failures, which means what we have been experiencing for the past two years is going to carry on.”
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Addressing the water crisis requires collaboration across various sectors, Adam argued. “They need to engage with all sectors. They cannot fix this on their own. This means engaging with civil society as a partner.”
She further highlighted the need for the CoJ to prioritize upgrading and maintaining water infrastructure, to ensure a reliable water supply for all communities, especially those disproportionately affected by current deficiencies.
Adam criticized the city’s reactive approach, stating: “There seems to be a reaction to the short term, but they need to be looking at longer, more sustainable solutions.” She pointed out, not only the lack of budget allocation for water, but also the reduction of the sanitation budget, which neglects the state of wastewater treatment works, which are polluting rivers and streams in the city.
Despite the challenges, WaterCAN is committed to monitoring the situation, creating awareness, and engaging with government and water entities. Adam shared: “We will continue to test water – tap water, river water, etc – because monitoring the quality is as important as addressing the challenges we are facing in infrastructure.”
As Johannesburg continues to face this water crisis, the call for urgent action and collaboration remains pressing. “We cannot wait any longer. Action is needed immediately to secure our city’s future,” Adam concluded.
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