A week after scheduled maintenance began on Rand Water’s bulk supply system, residents in several high-lying areas of Gauteng remain without running water, leading to growing frustration and desperation during the festive season.
Rand Water, the regional bulk water supplier, announced a three-phase maintenance plan, strategically timed for the festive period when water demand is traditionally lower. However, the outage has severely impacted communities like Coronationville, where residents describe a recurring cycle of water scarcity.
On the ground in Coronationville, the situation is dire. Residents were seen queuing with multiple five-litre bottles to collect water from a communal Jojo tank, a common sight in areas where supply is inconsistent. The water is needed for basic necessities like cooking, cleaning, and sanitation.
Local resident Melissa, who spoke to reporters, expressed the community’s exhaustion. “We were last told that the water is still at Eikenhof and we are patiently waiting for its arrival,” she said. “We don’t know if it is stuck in traffic. We don’t know if it is still crawling or running out of petrol.”
She questioned the timing of the work, asking why maintenance was scheduled for “such a critical time when it is festive season and most of our residents are actually at home.” Melissa highlighted that the chronic water issues have devalued homes in the area and forced residents to rely on their own initiatives, using cars to transport water and assisting the elderly.
“We need a savior,” she stated. “We just need the government, Johannesburg Water, Rand Water to really just come up with a truth and tell us actually what the amicable solution to this problem is.” She argued that planned maintenance is not a solution and recalled that past protests had yielded immediate results, a dynamic the community resents. “We need to always go to the streets, be unruly to get answers? That is not who we are… they are depriving us from our basic human right.”
Another resident, who identified as a technical person, challenged Rand Water’s explanation. He disputed the timeline for repairs, stating that replacing a pump should take approximately three hours, not days. “However, when they’ve done that… they say 3 to 5 days before we can get water again,” he said. “We’ve already [reached] 5 days and we still don’t have water.”
He also contested the logic of conducting maintenance during the holidays, noting that the assumption that consumption is lower is false for many. “Lots of people cannot afford to be going on holiday… We have to pay for water. We have to collect water for bathing, doing dishes and buy drinking water.”
The resident, who is living with an illness, emphasized the critical importance of water for health. “It’s very sad that this time of the year we have to be struggling the way we are.”
Rand Water’s maintenance plan continues, but for the residents of Coronationville and other affected high-lying areas, the wait for a reliable water supply persists, casting a shadow over the festive season and deepening calls for a permanent infrastructural solution.