JOHANNESBURG - “Heads must roll!” That was one of the messages on placards carried by fed-up Melville residents who say they have been battling reliable water supply for weeks.
The residents took to the streets on Wednesday, staging a protest along 4th Avenue and calling on the City of Johannesburg to address the ongoing water crisis.
Ferial Adams, founder of WaterCAN (Water Community Action Network), said residents were angry and frustrated after going weeks without a reliable water supply.
“There is no real hope of the system stabilising any time soon. The people hit by shortages are guaranteed no water. That is what we’ve been told…that this is just going to happen, and we must expect it. I don’t think that’s good enough anymore,” Adams said.
With parts of Johannesburg and Pretoria experiencing a heatwave, Adams said the ongoing water cuts were making an already difficult situation worse for residents.
“It’s absolutely making it worse. What’s also happening is that it’s giving the utility an excuse to say that demand is too high. But people are saying, ‘We have no water, how can that be?’
“We know there are problems with the utility, and we need to understand what that means for the water supply. But if you keep telling people they are the problem, they are going to block roads and get angry,” she said.
Adams said the water crisis was also taking a significant emotional and financial toll on households and businesses, particularly those that could not afford alternative water supplies.
“It is causing a whole lot of stress. There are elderly people who are completely stressed all the time. I get messages saying, ‘What must I do?’
“People in poorer areas can’t afford to buy water. They’re stuck. They cannot do anything. They’re embarrassed to go out. Small businesses cannot function without water, and not everyone can afford a backup.
“And having a backup is not a good excuse. It’s not good enough anymore. We can’t expect people to put backup measures in place,” she said.
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