Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero has reassured residents that the city’s ongoing water problems are being addressed. Image: Pixabay.
(The Post News)– Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero has reassured residents that the city’s ongoing water problems are being addressed. He made the remarks on Monday during a media briefing at the Alexander Park Reservoir, following last week’s violent protests over the crisis.
Residents in Johannesburg are facing extended water cuts, with several suburbs left without supply for weeks, leading to protests and growing demands for accountability from the city and Rand Water. Morero said they were working on solving and finding water solutions as the city will soon unveil its water infrastructure master plan, which will include refurbishments and pipe replacements, which enable the city to deal with water leaks.
“We have also agreed with the Minister of Water Pemmy Majodina that Johannesburg will have a programme on dealing with leaks and get support from the provincial government. In that way we will reduce our water losses quite significantly as we deal with pipe replacements,” said Morero.
The city will be very hard on illegal water connections, which are contributing to the current water challenges. “Illegal connections have been a big problem in the City of Johannesburg. We try from time to time to cut off illegal connections and… to a large extent, the cut-offs do help us in maintaining the water supply.
The mayor said they are going to meet with the Johannesburg Police Department with an intention to get them to be consistent in the programme of cut-offs. This will help in terms of managing water demand and it will also help in terms of bulk purchases. According to Morero, the city has acquired 20 tankers which will be deployed to communities when needed. In Coronationville, where water shortages ignited protests last week, the area is being supplied.
“They do have water. What we are doing is a balancing act. At night we close the water and during the morning we open it. It’s an issue of demand. We have to make a call to our communities to try as much as possible to preserve water…to use it sparingly. So that those areas that are battling to get those levels high, we can be able to provide and increase the levels in their water reservoirs,” Morero said
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