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Johannesburg Residents 'Desperate' as Taps Run Dry
Johannesburg faces severe water shortages due to aging infrastructure with 30% of supply lost to leaks, prompting protests and legal action by opposition parties.
- On Wednesday the Democratic Alliance announced legal action to compel Johannesburg to deliver water, as Susan Jobson banged empty bottles and more than 100 protesters chanted in Melville suburb.
- Years of infrastructural decay have strained Johannesburg's water supply, with decades of infrastructural decay pushing the system to the brink and municipal plans for repairs and reservoirs progressing slowly.
- A local pre-primary school invested about 15,000 rand in a tank that ran dry after 23 days, forcing principal Arifa Banday to rely on private water trucks as promised deliveries failed.
- The crisis has amplified long-standing criticism of the African National Congress's stewardship since 1994, with anger over failures contributing to support plunging to 40 percent in the 2024 national elections.
- Advocates are calling for national intervention to coordinate repairs and distribution, with Ferrial Adam, executive director of WaterCAN, saying `Our municipalities across the country are failing, both in supply of water and sanitation` after Cape Town declared a national disaster last week.
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Editorial: Taps – and residents’ patience – run dry – The Mail & Guardian
As President Cyril Ramaphosa prepared to present his State of the Nation address (Sona) on Thursday, his second in the government of national unity (GNU), residents of some suburbs across Joburg were protesting about the lack of water. The crisis has left no one untouched. Businesses, forced to shut their doors as the crisis deepens, have yet to feel the full cost of the calamity. If the mess is not fixed urgently, job losses are inevitable, e…
Radio France Internationale+12 Reposted by 12 other sources
Johannesburg residents 'desperate' as taps run dry
Sitting in the middle of a Johannesburg road as traffic snaked around her, Susan Jobson banged empty bottles to protest the water cuts that have upended her life for nearly three weeks.
·Paris, France
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources19
Leaning Left3Leaning Right1Center6Last UpdatedBias Distribution60% Center
Bias Distribution
- 60% of the sources are Center
60% Center
L 30%
C 60%
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