The ongoing water outages that have affected some areas of Johannesburg for the past 10 days have forced mayor Kabelo Gwamanda to postpone his planned opening of the Diepkloof Hostel electrification project on Tuesday morning.
This comes after Nicole van Dyk, a DA councillor for Ward 99, called Gwamanda out on Monday.
According to Van Dyk, Gwamanda attended a reggae festival while the residents were experiencing water supply challenges.
She added that there has not been any water for the previous nine days in the more than 20 suburbs she represents, including Randburg and the surrounding areas.
Health risks cited
According to Van Dyk, bathing with water from tanks poses health risks.
The City of Johannesburg and its citizens have previously had to request assistance from Rand Water and the province.
“Tanker water is not fit for residential use. This poses a growing risk to one’s health,” Van Dyk said on Monday.
On Tuesday, Gwamanda’s office announced that the mayor has cancelled his pre-arranged launch of the electrification project in order to attend to the protracted water disruptions in some parts of the city.
According to a statement from the mayor’s office, the Diepkloof community had previously spoken with Gwamanda about a number of issues the hostel was experiencing, and the launch would have been an opportunity to highlight some noteworthy accomplishments.
“The executive mayor remains committed to returning to Diepkloof Hostel on a later date, and such will be communicated with residents,” said the statement.
The city’s wellbeing is threatened
Gwamanda is scheduled to meet with council members in the impacted wards to try and deliver important updates on the system’s recovery and the mitigation strategies implemented to lessen the inconvenience to the locals.
The severe water crisis threatening the city’s wellbeing is causing significant challenges for the city’s economic centre.
A power outage at Rand Water’s Eikenhof facility has caused a water crisis that has affected most of the city, primarily the Linden 1 and Blairgowrie reservoirs.
