WaterCAN: Ageing infrastructure, poor funding driving Joburg’s water woes
Civil rights group WaterCAN says water supply disruptions in Johannesburg are due to years of infrastructure neglect by the metro.
Despite extensive maintenance work by Rand Water between June and July 2025, water supply issues continue to plague multiple areas across Johannesburg.
From 3 June to 21 July, Rand Water conducted major work on critical bulk water infrastructure, expecting to stabilise water systems across the city.
WaterCAN’s executive director, Ferrial Adam, said infrastructure maintenance is only being done by bulk water supplier Rand Water, while the main distributor for residents, Johannesburg Water, faces financial strains to conduct maintenance.
“The challenge is that, at a municipal level, city of Johannesburg level, not enough is being done to maintain our systems. Our pipes are old, our reservoirs are leaking, and that maintenance is not being done,” said Adam.
“If you allow mechanical things, like pipes, to deteriorate for ten years, then we have a very big backlog to deal with them.”
She adds that the City of Johannesburg needs to prioritise increasing the money allocated to the water and sanitation department in the city to fix the faster-eroding infrastructure.
“The city needs to increase the money they give to Johannesburg water for capital expenditure, and at the moment it is actually low to actually do what is needed to be done in the City of Joburg.”
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