The Persistent Water Outages in Johannesburg West

Background:

Since before 2009, have communities across the Johannesburg Metropolitan District endured persistent and intermittent water deprivation—often without any alternative source provided. These outages have disproportionately affected vulnerable households and have continued unabated for over a decade.

While aging infrastructure is routinely cited as the primary cause, the pattern of disruption reveals a deeper systemic failure. Maintenance activities—whether planned or unplanned—by water entities consistently result in prolonged outages, exposing a chronic lack of operational foresight, contingency planning, and accountability.

In recent years, the doctrine of Throttling has been used to justify uninterrupted service delivery failures. This practice, which restricts water flow under the guise of demand management, has become a convenient mechanism to mask inability and deflect responsibility. It effectively denies communities access to water while maintaining the illusion of supply continuity.

 Legal and Procedural Violations:

These failures stand in direct violation of the South African Constitution, which enshrines the right to water and sanitation as a fundamental human right under the Bill of Rights. Furthermore, the Water Services Act 108 of 1997 imposes clear statutory obligations:

• Every person has the right of access to basic water supply and sanitation services.
• Every Water Services Institution must take reasonable steps to realize these rights.
• Every Municipality must incorporate these rights into its Water Services Development Plan.

Despite these legal provisions, repeated service delivery failures by the Electricity Distribution Service Provider, Water Board, Water Services Authority (WSA), and Water Services Provider (WSP)—all organs of state—have contributed to sustained water outages.

The Gauteng branch of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), in its recent communications, has cited precedents as reason for File Closure while appearing to condone the ongoing water deprivation. This position leaves affected communities with no meaningful recourse but to petition national and provincial government for urgent intervention.

APPEAL TO GOVERNMENT

Government is hereby petitioned to:

1.   Intervene decisively in the current water crisis, ensuring that all organs of state—including Water Boards, Municipalities, and Service Providers—fulfil their constitutional and statutory mandate to deliver clean, running water and sanitation to communities in a sustainable and equitable manner.

2.   Address the accelerating decivilization and deindustrialization of Gauteng’s provincial capital. Johannesburg, once a world-class African city, is rapidly deteriorating into an overpopulated and unsanitary urban environment lacking basic services—undermining public health, economic productivity, and social cohesion.

3.   Restructure State-Owned Companies (SOCs) to restore professionalism, enforce ethical conduct, and ensure accountability. This includes the appointment of qualified leadership, transparent procurement practices, and independent oversight mechanisms.

4.   Ensure robust contingency planning by all relevant SOCs to prevent the recurrence of catastrophic service failures, including prolonged water outages and infrastructure collapse.

5.   Hold SOCs accountable for service delivery obligations, including:

• Transparent reporting on the causes of service disruptions
• Regular and truthful public updates
• Measurable performance standards aligned with community expectations and legal mandates

6.   Rectify unjust billing practices by SOE’s, whereby communities are charged for water that was not available for use. Specifically, address the phenomenon whereby compressed air—preceding the return of water after supply interruptions—causes water meters to register excessive and inaccurate consumption. This technical anomaly results in inflated charges that unfairly burden affected households and must be investigated, reversed, and prevented through appropriate metering safeguards and transparent billing.

7.   Reinstate the Hursthill 1 Area Water Supply to Pre-Crisis Levels with Sustainable Measures; the relevant authorities are pleaded with to urgently reinstate the water supply to the Hursthill 1 area to the same sustainable levels that were reliably available prior to the March 2024 Eikenhof Power Trip followed by the 4 September 2025 Vereeniging Power Trip. These events, marked by a lack of contingency planning and operational resilience triggered a prolonged and unjustifiable degradation in service delivery, necessitating further petitioning for:

• A full technical audit of the Hursthill 1 supply system—currently operating on bypass—including pump station capacity and feeder line integrity
• Publication of contingency protocols for future power-related disruptions affecting water infrastructure
• Transparent timelines and accountability mechanisms for the reinstatement process
• Assurance that future infrastructure upgrades or maintenance will not compromise baseline service levels to the Hursthill 1 supply zone

8.   Declare Johannesburg West a Disaster Area until a full turnaround in this crisis is realised.

Conclusion:

These appeals are not only reasonable—they are essential to restoring dignity, public trust, and lawful governance in Johannesburg and beyond.

On behalf of the Communities subjected to inhumane treatment:

Peta Louise Campbell
Petition Starter
Semi-retired Architectural Designer with a passionate interest in the upliftment and welfare of the community