People in Johannesburg South Africa are facing a major water crisis. Tsholofelo Moloi is one of many locals who have waited in long lines for water over the past two weeks. This is the worst water shortage the city has ever seen.
The problem affects both rich and poor areas. Hot weather has made water levels drop but old broken pipes and poor maintenance are the main reasons for this crisis. Many people blame the government party ANC which has run the country since the 1990s. This could hurt their chances in the next election.
South Africa already deals with regular power cuts. Now people use the word “watershedding” to describe times when they have no water just like they use “loadshedding” for power outages. This new normal has made life very hard for millions of people in the city.
Life is hard for Moloi who lives in Soweto near Johannesburg.
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She and her neighbors must wait in long lines each day for water trucks to come. When the trucks didn’t show up she had to beg for water at a restaurant nearby.
She couldn’t buy bottled water because it costs too much at 25 rand for a small bottle. This is too expensive for many people since lots of South Africans don’t have jobs.
“Everything is difficult now” Moloi said. “We need water to cook and clean. Our kids have to go to school but we can’t even wash their clothes. The stress is getting to us.”
People in Johannesburg and nearby towns know what it’s like when water runs low but they’ve never seen it happen everywhere at the same time.
Recently water officials in Gauteng told leaders in Johannesburg & Pretoria some bad news. They said if people don’t start using less water the whole system might break down. This would make water levels drop really low in storage tanks. If that happens they’d need to close everything until the tanks fill up again.
The water shortage might last several weeks. People won’t have tap water during this hot season when everyone needs it most. Winter is still far away in the Southern part of the world.
Even though there’s no official drought yet officials are asking people to save water whenever possible. Friday’s World Water Day shows us why saving water is so important for everyone.
People are angry about the water problems in Johannesburg. They say this issue has been building up for many years. The water pipes are old & broken because no one took care of them properly. These pipes were built when apartheid ended and Black people finally got basic services.
The ANC party used to be popular because of these improvements. Now people want answers about why things went wrong. In Johannesburg, where different parties share power, everyone blames the government for not taking care of such an important city.
A government report shows bad news. It says 40% of Johannesburg’s water is lost because of leaky & broken pipes. This is really wasteful. Recently even rich people in Johannesburg have had to wait for water trucks to deliver water to their homes.
This surprised many of them because they’re not used to such problems. They have nice houses with swimming pools but now face the same water issues as everyone else.
People who live in Blairgowrie took to the streets to protest. They had no water for almost two weeks.
A Soweto council member named Lefa Molise spoke to The Associated Press. He didn’t think the water problem would be fixed soon.
The water keeps getting cut off so often that he tells people to save any water they can get. The authorities don’t warn people before they cut the water.
The water trucks that come to help aren’t giving enough water to everyone.
An elderly woman called Thabisile Mchunu said she hasn’t had water since last week. She now has to carry water in big buckets.
“We don’t know when we’ll get water again” she said sadly.
Rand Water asked people in Gauteng to use less water this week. The water company serves many towns in the area. Their water tanks are only 30% full and when people use too much water from one tank it affects all the others.
South Africa’s power problems have made the water situation worse. A lightning strike hit a power station that runs one of Johannesburg’s main water pumps.
The city’s mayor Kabelo Gwamanda shared this news on Tuesday. Nqobile Ntshangase helped write this story from Johannesburg.
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