By Mzukona Mantshontsho
On Thursday 11 September 2025: Tensions boiled over as Coronationville residents return to the streets to protest against water outages in the area. Speaking in Sandton on the sidelines of a seminar on the role of sub-national government in global governance, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi acknowledged the frustration that has sparked widespread protests in Johannesburg and other parts of Gauteng.
The residents were demanding solutions and refusing to leave the streets until their issues are resolved. Roads were blocked with rocks and burning tires, disrupting traffic. The City of Johannesburg promised to deploy water trucks and is working on reservoir rehabilitation.
Spoke to Spokesperson at Joburg Water Nombuso Shabalala.
South Africa is facing serious water challenges due to water scarcity. To achieve water for all, let us prevent pollution in our rivers. Poor water supply, sanitation, and hygiene is one of the major causes of poverty, and thus numerous poor populations suffer a lot in our community. This has resulted in various water related diseases such as Typhoid or E. coli infection, cancer or even death. In South Africa water scarcity is set to rise to 17% or more in 2030, therefore it is vital to secure our water resource to mitigate this effect. If this is not mitigated, we all know the consequences (e.g. Day-Zero in Cape Town as a case study).
Though South Africa is a dry climatic region, many factors contribute to water scarcity is the “Water Use and Allocation Policy”. This policy was made during a time when agriculture was a lucrative business. A sustainable solution towards ending poverty and developing communities can be achieved by complementing engineering solutions with finance, investment, and economic in the context of public-private partnership, and programme to educate communities regarding water and wastewater management.
What is at the heart of this Water Crisis in Gauteng?
As Johannesburg Water, we can only respond to this question in relation to the City of Johannesburg.
Johannesburg Water is responsible for providing water and sanitation services to all residents of the City of Johannesburg (CoJ). However, the Entity is faced with challenges that impede on the ability to provide uninterrupted water supply.
Lack of financial resources, ageing infrastructure (the Entity has an infrastructure renewal backlog because of underfunding, which further causes premature failure of municipal assets), as well as human resources.
Furthermore, the Entity is also faced with social challenges such as theft and vandalism of infrastructure, as well as overpopulation, which leads to illegal housing and illegal connections. Johannesburg Water works together with the City to enforce by-laws to remedy these issues. Please also note that these challenges are not unique to City of Johannesburg and Johannesburg Water; but these are national issues.
With illegal connections, there are residents who refuse to have our pre-paid water meters installed because they refuse to pay for water. Power supply interruptions (which affect pumping to reservoirs and towers), also play a role in the disruption of steady water supply.
So, the abovementioned are not just a Johannesburg Water solution, but should be a partnership with communities, who we urge to work with us to take care of infrastructure, pay for water, be vigilant and report the misuse of infrastructure.
So, it’s a myriad of challenges that we are facing. However, Johannesburg Water has in place short, medium, and long-term plans to alleviate water supply issues. One of these mitigation strategies is the entity’s Water Conservation and Water Demand Management Strategy, which includes addressing the repairing of leaking reservoir and tower infrastructure, repairing and replacement of zonal bulk meters, active and passive leak detection, and retrofitting and removal of wasteful devices (the installation of prepaid smart meters).
If these protests happen in other communities in Gauteng, how will the city address this?
As Johannesburg Water, we can only respond to this question in relation to the City of Johannesburg, not Gauteng.
Water Leakages, how much are these leaks costing per month, annually? what is being done to address this?
We quantify our physical losses on the network which is a factor of bursts, leaking pipes/meters/connections, and leaking reservoirs etc. These are typically 26% of system input volume at the moment.
Johannesburg Water has a Water Conservation and Water Demand Management Strategy in place, which includes addressing water leaks through active and passive leak detection, which has the potential to reduce water demand by huge quantities.
Passive Leak Detection (Noise Loggers)
The organisation has procured a contract for supply, deliver and on-site training of leak detection equipment. The project scope entails deploying noise loggers (pipeline embedded sensors) in the reticulation. These noise loggers identify water noises in the reticulation and locate the point where the leak is.
The repair team is then deployed to attend to the leak. This technology is critical in identifying underground leaks that do not surface. 125 noise loggers have been procured and installed as at 30 April 2025. Additional 100 noise loggers have been procured with an installation date as 31 August 2025
How can communities and individual HOUSEHOLDS meet halfway to address this?
Residents and customers are encouraged to please repair their on-property leaks, as well as report pipe leaks and bursts as soon as possible to Johannesburg Water so that the Entity can be alerted.
The Water Throttling, how long will this be happening?
Throttling is a process to reduce consumption especially where consumption exceeds available supply. Johannesburg Water has a monthly throttling schedule to curb high demand and reduction of water losses. With the increase in demand over the past three weeks, level 1 restriction will remain (September to March). This schedule will increase going forward to respond to the sudden increase in demand (meaning more sites will be throttled).
