{"id":89925,"date":"2024-12-09T10:01:39","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T10:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/?p=89925"},"modified":"2025-11-17T17:38:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T17:38:23","slug":"joburgs-water-crisis-in-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/2024\/12\/09\/joburgs-water-crisis-in-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Burst pipes, falling levels and unplanned fixes: Numbers behind Joburg\u2019s water crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By Laura Grant and Gemma Ritchie<br><\/strong><br><strong>Not sure which water towers and reservoirs affect your suburb? <a href=\"https:\/\/theoutlier.co.za\/tools\/view\/jhbwater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Search our list of Joburg suburbs and water facilities<\/a> to find out. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joburg has a water problem. It\u2019s been brewing for years and it&#8217;s largely self-inflicted. The city\u2019s water infrastructure is old and hasn\u2019t been maintained properly, plus it hasn\u2019t been upgraded to cope with the growing population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The people living here have stoically adapted. Much like they did during the years of loadshedding when they bought solar panels to reduce their reliance on the unreliable grid, they\u2019re now installing water tanks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A day without water is worse than a day without electricity. Some of us have had desperate relatives arrive at our homes at 9pm with towels, toiletry bags and basins of dirty dishes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What can you do? Complain on the neighbourhood WhatsApp group, or take to the streets in protest like the <a href=\"https:\/\/groundup.org.za\/article\/joburg-protesters-block-roads-demanding-water\/\">residents of Coronationville<\/a> did earlier this month? We decided to collect data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joburg\u2019s water issues seem to fall into two broad categories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Those caused by infrastructure breakages like pipe bursts (let\u2019s call them emergency repairs), which require \u2018unplanned maintenance\u2019, and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Those that are wider ranging and caused by problems with reservoirs and water towers.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Joburg Water also does \u2018planned maintenance\u2019, which includes things like cleaning reservoirs and relocating or installing new pipes. We&nbsp;compare this with the unplanned maintenance it reported during October and November in the chart below.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"810\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Water-planned.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-89926\" srcset=\"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Water-planned.png 810w, https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Water-planned-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Water-planned-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Water-planned-768x768.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There were double the number of \u2018unplanned maintenance\u2019 issues reported in the past two months than planned ones: 41 compared with 20. The unplanned maintenance affected 162 suburbs (see the map below), while planned maintenance had a daintier footprint of just over 100 suburbs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some parts of Joburg seem to be unplanned maintenance \u2018hotspots\u2019, with suburbs within them having five or six incidents in the past two months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"810\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-repairs.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-89927\" srcset=\"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-repairs.png 810w, https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-repairs-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-repairs-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-repairs-768x768.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of the maintenance work was quick, taking less than a day. But some parts of Soweto had two weeks of what was euphemistically described as \u2018water supply disruption\u2019 because of an unplanned structural investigation of the Jabulani reservoir. There are 41 instances for which we can only find the start date so we don\u2019t know how long they took to repair.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"811\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-levels.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-89928\" srcset=\"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-levels.png 811w, https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-levels-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-levels-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-levels-768x767.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 811px) 100vw, 811px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Joburg Water has 129 reservoirs and water towers. In the past two months, the water level in at least 26 of them has been very low, critically low or empty, according to public updates by Joburg Water.&nbsp;The water supply to more than 440 suburbs was affected as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There may be more, but it\u2019s difficult to identify which suburbs are affected when Joburg Water refers only to problematic systems, such as the Commando, Randburg\/Roodepoort systems, which are networks of multiple connected towers and reservoirs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On 17 November, for example, City Power did repairs to its Eikenhof substation, which affected a number of water systems. Joburg Water said the Commando system took over a week to recover. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The shaded area on the chart above represents this event, but we were not able to count the number of reservoirs and towers affected because they were not listed by Joburg Water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other reasons given for very low water levels are a burst pipe that caused the Honeydew reservoir to empty on 7 October.&nbsp;A surge in problems reported between 1 and 4 November was blamed on hot weather.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s difficult to identify the impact of these outages on residents because Joburg Water\u2019s reports seldom include information about how long a problem lasts. But Coronationville residents protested in the streets on 26 November after six days without water, according to news reports, because of the Commando system\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nine reservoirs\/towers have been reported as having been very low to empty four or more times in the past two months:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Doornkop West Reservoir (12 times)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>South Hills Tower (10)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lenasia Hospital Hills Reservoir (9)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Diepsloot Reservoir (8)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lenasia High Level Reservoir (8)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Power Park Reservoir (6)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Grand Central Tower (5)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Yoeville Reservoir (5)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Brixton Tower (4)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"811\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-throttling.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-89929\" srcset=\"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-throttling.png 811w, https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-throttling-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-throttling-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-throttling-768x767.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 811px) 100vw, 811px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In November, the minister of water and sanitation&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.za\/news\/media-statements\/water-and-sanitation-gauteng-office-premier-city-johannesburg-and-rand-water\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced a plan of action for Joburg\u2019s water problems<\/a>, which included \u2018throttling the water supply\u2019. This limiting officially began on 14 November. However, Joburg Water appears to have already been doing that \u2013 they were just calling it \u2018switching systems off at night\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"810\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-revenue.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-89930\" srcset=\"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-revenue.png 810w, https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-revenue-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-revenue-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/water-revenue-768x768.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Another problem Joburg has is the water lost because of leaking pipes and other faulty infrastructure. This loss is reported as \u2018non-revenue water\u2019 in Joburg Water\u2019s annual report. Since 2013, non-revenue water has increased from 35% to 46.1%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not all non-revenue water is water lost to leaks \u2013 this is just 24.1% of it. Unbilled authorised consumption is 12.7%. This is water supplied to informal environments and used for network maintenance. The rest (9.4%) is \u2018commercial losses\u2019, described as illegal connections and meters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Notebook<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>We extracted information from Johannesburg Water&#8217;s unplanned and planned maintenance and system maintenance updates posted between 1 October and 30 November 2024 on its website and X account.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>What&#8217;s your experience of the water situation in your area?<\/strong>&nbsp;We&#8217;re going to be working on water issues a lot more in the coming months so we&#8217;d love to hear your thoughts on what we should look at or where you think the biggest problems are:&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:hello@theoutlier.co.za\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hello@theoutlier.co.za<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joburg\u2019s water woes have been decades in the making, with ageing infrastructure and poor maintenance unable to keep up with a growing population. In the past two months, unplanned maintenance incidents have doubled compared to planned ones, affecting over 440 suburbs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":89931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1387],"tags":[1309,288,50,111,192,1182],"newsletter-post":[],"site":[],"class_list":["post-89925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-governance","category-the-outlier","tag-infrastructure","tag-joburg-water","tag-johannesburg","tag-local-government","tag-water","tag-water-crisis"],"acf":{"big_number":"","big_number_caption":"","big_number_link":"","big_number_background":"","big_number_text_colour":"#000000","big_number_icon":false,"big_number_wide":"yes","featured_chart":false,"flourish_chart_id":"","flourish_sub_title":"","flourish_chart_width":"medium","is_newsletter_post":"No","post_style":"bc","show_on_front":"Yes","link_through":"Yes","chart_url":"","background_colour":"#0089AA","text_colour":"#FFFFFF"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89925"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89936,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89925\/revisions\/89936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89925"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter-post?post=89925"},{"taxonomy":"site","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/site?post=89925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}