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Operations: Water trucks supply residents (above) while maintenance is carried out in Johannesburg.  (Photo by Gallo Images/Sharon Seretlo

Joburg’s water: ‘Leaks, holes and no repairs’

Johannesburg’s Alexander Park reservoir is taking strain, leaving taps dry for days

The Nqweba Dam near Graaff-Reinet has recharged after dropping to 4.98%. (Murat Ozgur Guvendik/Getty Images)

It’s dangerous to forget Cape Town’s Day Zero

Water scarcity in dry places has long shaped how people have used the resource

A generator supplying power to a store is secured and locked to a traffic light during  load-shedding in the Linden district of Johannesburg. (Leon Sadiki/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Want votes? Get the basics right

Whether the ANC can keep the lights on will be a key factor heading into elections

Rand Water is already over the limit for water it can extract from the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) and it would be irresponsible to increase it for Gauteng, said the director general of the department of water and sanitation.(Photo by Deaan Vivier/Beeld/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

Gauteng’s treated water availability is tight, says water and sanitation department

Extracting too much water from the Vaal River system will result in a worse crisis

File photo: A City of Tshwane employee collects a sample of water from a municipal tank truck in Hammanskraal, where a cholera outbreak killed 15 people last year. (Michele Spatari/Getty Images)

Joburg water outages: ‘Nobody should be living like this’

Rand Water, Johannesburg Water and the department of water and sanitation are to meet civil society groups on Saturday

Crisis averted: A sign in a restroom helped promote the use of waterless hand sanitizer in Cape Town in 2018, during the worst drought on record
in the region after years of low rainfall. Authorities named 11 May as the infamous “Day Zero” when water would run out if reservoir levels kept
falling and consumption did not slow enough – but managed to avoid this because people changed their behaviour. Photo: Waldo Swiegers/Getty

Cape Town offers lessons on how to save water

Our water use is higher than the global average – and we need to fix infrastructure to reduce losses

Water shortages has raised the ire of many community members and led to protests. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Water cuts creating hostile communities, says Joburg Water

Water outages have left many communities with dry spells since August as the city struggles with prolonged recovery periods of Rand Water and Johannesburg Water supply systems

Residents, community organisations and civil society groups across Johannesburg have united to demand urgent action to end the city’s deepening water crisis. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Gauteng: Same water, seven million more people

Gauteng water users need to use water ‘more carefully and efficiently’, says water expert

Drop: Joburg Water cannot ensure residents have a regular supply. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

The water crisis in Gauteng’s three metros looks set to deepen

Causes are a growing population, ageing infrastructure, poor governance and leaks

Water shortages has raised the ire of many community members and led to protests. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

‘We are living in the Stone Age’, say Gauteng residents of water cuts

The reasons change and the blame game goes on while people struggle with severe water shortages

Johannesburg Water says it has a two-phase plan to repair 44 leaking reservoirs in the city, about half of its total amount of reservoirs. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

CSIR warns that Eskom’s energy crunch will continue to wreak havoc and could cause water cuts

‘Significant intervention’ is needed or the power crisis will deteriorate further, council says

Precious liquid: Residents drink water from a tanker in Johannesburg after levels in reservoirs drop and water stations ground to a halt
during load-shedding.
Photos: Denzil Maregele/Gallo Images & Delwyn Verasamy

Eskom crisis has exposed SA’s municipal crisis

Load-shedding has hastened the collapse of poorly maintained and managed municipal systems

Stage two water restrictions were introduced in Joburg this week but these will only be effective if they are enforced as they were in Cape Town during their Day Zero period. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Editorial: We are a shredded nation

The fact that we are lamenting water cuts speaks volumes of our privilege, particularly when there are parts of the country where people have to walk kilometres to get a few…

In many regions, human–water systems are already in a post-crisis state of failure. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy

PODCAST: Troubled waters — High and dry in Gauteng

Colourful Numbers is a new podcast that attempts to tell the stories behind the data, particularly the ones that are important for our survival

Vaal water treatment plant.

Industry can ease the water crisis

By law, the state is the custodian of the country’s water resources, but the private sector can help the public sector build new infrastructure.

Mmusi Maimane said the DA would take the water to another community that needed it.

Police escort Maimane out of Tsakane

DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane tried to deliver water to a community near Brakpan, but ANC residents chanted and booed him out of town.

The quality of the water in Khayelitsha’s RR section is highly questionable

Plan may see poor paying more for water

Rich people use more of the resource, but Cape Town says they pay too much to subsidise others.

For the 10% of South Africans that do not have access to piped water

THE EDITORIAL: Water in Carolina, at last

The North Gauteng High Court’s decision in the Carolina matter is another instance of the courts having to push government to do its job.

Cholera-hit Zim restores water to most parts of Harare

Zimbabwe authorities on Wednesday restored water to most parts of the capital, Harare, after a cut more than 48 hours ago amid a cholera outbreak.