Johannesburg taps dry, South Africa's infrastructure crisis deepens

Unlock Editorial Digest for Free

FT editor Roula Khalaf chooses her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Parts of South Africa's largest city have been without running water for nearly two weeks, reminding voters of the precarious state of the country's infrastructure just two months before an election.

Africa's most industrialized economy has been hit by power outages, transport problems and severe service delivery failures that threaten the rule of the ruling African National Congress.

A prolonged power outage has left taps dry in large swathes of Johannesburg and Gauteng provinces, signaling a deepening crisis in the water system during one of the hottest months of the year.

Ferrier Adam, executive manager of civil society organization WaterCAN, said South Africa's industrial heartland was “on the verge of a catastrophic water supply crisis”. The government and water authorities “haven't spent the money they need on maintenance for about a decade – now they're really just chasing their tail.”

Jana Porter, a marketing executive at an NGO, woke up on March 3 to find there was no running water in her home in Johannesburg's northern suburbs and had recently dipped into her savings to buy a 2,200-litre backup tank. “We're thinking, 'What's the longest this could last? This really isn't the end of the world.”

About two weeks later, in the midst of a heat wave with soaring temperatures, the taps are still dry. “We've literally gotten to the point where we can't flush toilets, our gardens are withering, we can't really cook. We're just letting the laundry pile up and we can't really shower,” she said.

While water shortages are becoming more frequent in wealthy suburbs, such outages have long been an issue in less affluent areas. Almost daily power outages have affected water pumps that supply water to the sprawling township where about half of Gauteng's population lives.

Residents of the town of Alexandra have been enduring erratic supplies for weeks. “There's really nothing we can do about it. We just have to vote when the time comes,” said Ashley Moss, whose income as a hairdresser has been slashed by the shortage.

South Africa's crumbling infrastructure is at the center of national discussion ahead of a crucial May 29 vote. The ANC, whose vote share is widely expected to fall below 50% for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994, has pledged to end blackouts that cost the economy about $50 million a day by the end of the year, although many doubt their ability make it happen. Fixing a creaking water system can be equally complex.

Gauteng's water infrastructure was designed between the two world wars to provide water for the goldfields and mining industries on which the city depended.

Craig Sheridan, director of the Water Research and Development Center at the University of the Witwatersrand, said only about 30 kilometers of pipes would be upgraded each year, rather than the 200 kilometers needed. A lack of management and technical oversight compounds the problem, he added.

“They are finding problems, but once they find problems, more and more problems arise. The gophers are reproducing.”

Johannesburg-based supplier Rand Water says half the drinking water that passes through pipes is lost through leaks, waste and illegal connections.

South Africa's municipalities also owe nearly 18 billion rand ($959 million) to the country's water authority, hampering their ability to carry out upgrades. Gauteng's main distributor, Johannesburg Water, also said customers were owed R16-billion in water bills.

Experts say the R12-billion Lesotho Highlands Water Project, originally scheduled to be completed in 2020, will ease pressure on South Africa's water supply system once it is up and running in 2028.

It's not just homes that are affected. Business Leaders South Africa chief executive Busisiwe Mavuso wrote in a newsletter this week that water supply issues for manufacturers and mining companies pose further risks to economic activity.

“We cannot find ourselves in a situation where we have solved the energy and logistics crisis only to face new challenges. [water] The crisis ultimately means that economic activity is not happening,” she said.