Advocacy group pushes for Joburg Water budget increase
WaterCAN says it will submit a “Johannesburg Water Funding Petition” in January to be discussed in council.
This comes amid the water crisis in South Africa, with alleged frequent leaks and pipe bursts wasting millions of litres of water.
According to the organisation, Joburg Water lacks adequate funding for major repairs and much-needed infrastructure upgrades.
For 2024/25, Joburg Water was allocated R17.657 billion for operational spending and only R1.221 billion for capital expenditure. Johannesburg Water has indicated that it needs R3 billion for capital expenditure.
WaterCAN's executive director, Dr Ferriel Adam says should council disregard the petition, it would indicate the government’s unwillingness to fix the country’s water crisis.
In the petition, WaterCAN demands an increased water infrastructure maintenance budget, ensuring reliable water supply to all communities and transparency in water tenders.
“Joburg Water needs an increased budget for them to maintain our water infrastructure, without this, we are gonna be in a situation like this for years to come.”
Meanwhile, areas in the south of Johannesburg recently experienced an 86-hour water supply interruption due to Rand Water Eiknhof water plant maintenance last week.
The interruptions come as the entity began implementing water-throttling measures in an attempt to mitigate the high water consumption rates in the city.
READ: https://www.jacarandafm.com/news/news/rand-water-warns-86-hour-water-outage-gautengsa/
“So with this petition, we are simply calling for a number of things that need to be transparent. There needs to be transparency in contracts, there needs to be transparency on how money is spent, and we need civil society to be involved in all of this," Adam said.
Adam says should the petition succeed, that would not mark the end of their efforts to draw attention to the water challenges across the country.
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