Johannesburg’s water crisis led to a protest outside the Metro Centre in November. Despite assurances from Mayor Dada Morero that the city would address the issue, the first days of 2026 show that the crisis is by no means under control. It’s a new year, but Johannesburg still faces the same old water problems.
Since 31 December there have been at least 22 major water outages that have left taps dry across large parts of the city. A pipe burst in Houghton recurred twice within the space of a week, Selby has had no water for more than six months, and daily throttling and water tankers are still a way of life for residents of Kensington, Bez Valley and the CBD. There was a major water contamination issue in Bezuidenhout Valley on 16 December.
Residents reported “smelly water”, and Johannesburg Water said contaminated water from a burst sewerage pipe had leaked into a drinking water pipe where repairs were being carried out. Residents had been reporting the pipe leak since March 2023. Joburg Water instructed residents of Albertina Sisulu Road and surrounding streets (6th, 7th, 8th and 9th avenues, and 10th Street) in the Joburg CBD and Bezuidenhout Valley not to drink water while they tested and flushed the system.
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Water was turned off on 17 December. coli(faecal matter) was found in the initial sampling, and Joburg Water flushed the system for the next three weeks. On 5 January, no traces ofE.
coliwere found in the system, but there were elevated levels of coliform (commonly found in soil), and additional doses of chlorine were put into the system. Safe drinking water was finally restored on 10 January. Large sections of the city’s water infrastructure were built 80 years ago, and a substantial proportion of the 12,364 kilometres of distribution pipes needs to be replaced.
In the last financial year, the city managed to replace only 17km of these pipes. According to the Gauteng Water Security Dashboard, the city reported 20,915 leaks and pipe bursts between 1 July and 15 December 2025. Of the city’s 98 reservoirs, 21 are in urgent need of repair, while 27% of the water Joburg buys from Rand Water is lost through leaks and illegal connections.
Over the last 15 years, investment in infrastructure replacement has declined rapidly. Joburg Water needs more than R27-billion to repair and upgrade its infrastructure. Its budget for the current financial year is R1.7-billion.
Dr Ferrial Adam, the executive manager of WaterCAN, said the city had been struggling to effectively address its water issues. “We presented the mayor with a set of demands and suggestions to sort this out, but we have only had an acknowledgement of our demands and a vague indication of a meeting at some stage. The water and sanitation problem is a national crisis, but we are not getting it right,” she said. A major obstacle hampering Joburg Water’s (JW’s) ability to address the water infrastructure backlogs, said Adam, is that the entity does not control its own budget.
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