27 February 2025
Activists from WaterCAN picket outside the Joburg Council meeting on Thursday calling for an increase in the water budget. Photo: Silver Sibiya.
Dozens of people led by WaterCAN lined some streets in the city centre with placards in Johannesburg on Thursday, calling for the Joburg Water capital budget to be doubled to R3-billion for 2024/25 and another R3-billion in 2025/26.
This happened as the City of Johannesburg Council was debating the budget on 27 February. WaterCAN is an initiative by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA).
The City has been facing a water crisis that has led to many protests across the municipality. Some communities have no access to water and are relying on water trucks.
WaterCAN’s Ferrial Adam said there were 42 leaking reservoirs that needed urgent repairs. “They have identified 20 that they are going to fix but they haven’t started because there is no budget to fix it,” Adams said.
Adams said that only fixing 14km a year of the 12,000km pipeline was not enough.
She said they handed over a petition to the Speaker in late January calling for the water budget to be increased from R1.2-billion to R3-billion, which they wanted to be tabled during the council meeting on Thursday.
Adams welcomed the construction of more reservoirs in the metro but said this was not enough. Some areas supplied by Hursthill Reservoirs such as Westbury and Crosby remain without water.
Civic Action for Democracy and Equality spokesperson Rehad Desai said they also supported the ring-fencing of revenue but raised concern that it would take too long for the water crisis to be resolved.
“We still have a massive backlog. It would take 10 years to fix the water system now because of the Lesotho Highlands project delay,” he said.
He further said the amount of water bought by Joburg Water is not enough.
“The water consumption is higher than what the City is able to supply. It’s happening in all metros in Gauteng. That’s why we are mobilising everywhere.”
“Today is just a buildup … everybody has an interest in ensuring that water household consumption is prioritised,” he said.
The City of Joburg could not be reached for the comment at the time of publication.