Johannesburg's big water problem

The water crisis is getting worse in South Africa's biggest city, says Craig Sheridan, chair professor at the University of the Witwatersrand. This is why the taps keep running dry in the country's industrial hub.

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Since the latter part of 2023, hardly a week has gone by without some residents of Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial capital, losing their water supply. Notices of planned outages from the local water authority are a common occurrence. Unplanned water shutdowns also happen regularly.

The entire city has been affected – shanty towns as well as less affluent and more affluent parts. The Conversation Africa asked geography professor Craig Sheridan, director of the Centre in Water Research and Development at the University of the Witwatersrand, what has gone wrong.

IS THERE SUFFICIENT WATER PROVISION FROM GOVERNMENT?

The water allocation for each province is based on the amount available in the dams (which must also supply our future needs) and the number of people in that province. Currently the Vaal Dam is 70% full.

Rand Water – the area’s bulk water supplier – buys the water from the Department of Water and Sanitation, which will only sell a certain amount to it. Rand Water takes water mainly from the Vaal Dam – the region’s biggest – and treats it to create potable quality. It then sells the water to Johannesburg and Pretoria (and other cities and towns) which are in Gauteng, the smallest of South Africa’s nine provinces and its industrial heartland.

Rand Water is not allowed to supply more than the amount set by the Department of Water and Sanitation. But there is a mismatch between what is allocated by the national government and what is needed on the ground. This is because the national government takes into consideration future needs.

WHY CAN’T NEW DAMS BE BUILT TO SUPPLY MORE WATER?