'Not everybody is built for living as if you're on a survivor show'

Residents are fed up with Joburg's water crisis, which contributed to a mother and child dying in a fire this week

- Sheree Bega

The deaths of a mother and her eight-month-old baby in a house fire in Mayfair West, west of Johannesburg, this week starkly illustrates the dire levels that the water crisis across large swathes of the city has reached.

Marhooma Raeesah Bulbulia Moesa and her eight-month-old daughter, Ayesha Suliman, died in the blaze in the early hours of Monday morning. They were buried at Westpark Cemetery that evening.

At the time of the fire, the area’s water supply was being throttled by Johannesburg Water, to reduce pressure and flow to curb rising consumption and protect reservoir levels.

“The house burned and the neighbours couldn’t even put their hosepipes on,” said Ferrial Adam, the executive manager of civil society organisation WaterCAN. “They had to take [containers with] five litres of water from their houses to help until the fire brigade came.”

The tragic fire, which took two lives and left others injured, is yet another devastating reminder of the risks communities face when basic services fail, she said.

“The lack of water at the time — due to nighttime throttling — meant that residents had no way to respond effectively. This should never happen.

“We are seeing the same potential disasters in many parts of Johannesburg, like Claremont, where people have lived with intermittent water supply for over 10 years.

“We cannot ignore the cumulative impact of poor service delivery. It’s putting lives at risk. The city burns while politicians fiddle.”

Nana Radebe-Kgiba, a spokesperson for the City of Johannesburg's Emergency Management Services (EMS), told the Mail & Guardian that there was no water in the area when its fire engine arrived.

“We responded with a fire engine with a water tanker [from Brixton]. In all cases we do that,” she said.

“Remember, when we go to informal settlements, there are no fire hydrants around so we definitely have to rely on the water tanker ...