Johannesburg’s water crisis angers voters, drives rich off-grid

As South Africa heads toward local elections expected in November, water shortages have become a glaring sign of municipal failures, frustrating voters and chipping away at support for the ruling African National Congress. In the commercial capital, wealthier residents are increasingly taking matters into their own hands, drilling boreholes to bypass the city’s system and depriving it of funds needed to address the crisis.

Dry taps have become a daily headache for Johannesburg residents, as the city loses over a third of its water supply—about 655 million litres (173 million gallons) every day—due to burst pipes.

“I feel completely drained,” said 17-year-old student Thandani Masangu after spending three hours pushing a trolley loaded with empty containers through Hillbrow’s peeling, trash-strewn streets in search of water.

His block has had none for more than three years.
Masangu and his friend Raymond Maleka spotted a tank being refilled by a municipal water truck; a security guard told them there was only enough for residents of the adjacent tower-block.

Johannesburg Water, the city-run utility, admits there’s an issue. “The infrastructure is old—much of it over 50 years,” said Zakhele Khuzwayo, the senior manager for innovation and technology, in an interview with Reuters.

“The city are aware of the limitations. We know where we’d like to ​be … Now it’s a matter of paving the way to get there.”
That acknowledgement, and the regular promises of progress, have done little to stop the once mundane issue of maintenance rising up the ​list of electoral grievances.

“Maintenance isn’t glamorous. It’s always more tempting to put money into other areas,” said Craig Sheridan, director and founder of the Centre in Water Research and Development at the University of the Witwatersrand. “This problem isn’t just in our water systems—we see it across all public infrastructure,” added Sheridan, who gathered data on the city’s leaking pipes.