The city of Johannesburg is grappling with a severe and growing water crisis, driven by ageing infrastructure, persistent power outages, and rising demand, leading to frequent water cuts and low pressure for many residents.
As frustration mounts, citizens are increasingly seeking alternative water sources, with new data revealing an 80% spike in borehole applications in the last six months alone. However, experts are warning that this unregulated rush to drill could damage surrounding infrastructure and create a new set of environmental and social problems.
Dr. Fariel Adam, Executive Director at the non-profit organization WaterCAN, elaborated on the dual nature of the crisis in a recent interview. While acknowledging the desperation driving residents to find their own water solutions, Dr. Adam highlighted significant concerns.
“It’s mostly the more affluent areas that can drill boreholes because it’s not cheap,” Dr. Adam stated, pointing to an immediate equity issue. She also raised the alarm about “illegal drillers that don’t have the skills,” citing a recent incident where a company “dropped a borehole into the cow train,” illustrating the potential for catastrophic infrastructure damage.
The core of the problem, according to Dr. Adam, is a critical lack of government oversight and regulation. “At the moment, government does not have a baseline of what the levels of our groundwater is. It doesn’t track a rate of extraction,” she explained. This lack of data makes sustainable management impossible and opens the door for illegal water selling.
The crisis is further exacerbated by a severe shortage of qualified professionals. Dr. Adam revealed that across South Africa’s 257 municipalities, only a “handful of qualified… groundwater professionals” are available to manage this burgeoning sector.
While the government has initiated its own borehole projects in some underserved and rural areas, Dr. Adam distinguished these communal water points as a more sustainable solution for sparsely populated regions. “Those are actually what government’s doing because they cannot get infrastructure to all areas,” she said, emphasizing the need for these projects to be properly regulated and the water regularly tested.
Drawing a comparison to the electricity crisis, where alternatives like solar power emerged, Dr. Adam stressed that water has no substitute. “There are no alternatives to water,” she said, warning that without municipal intervention, people will turn to groundwater or even polluted rivers. She called for municipalities to “ring fence the money for water and sanitation” to fix broken pipes and infrastructure.
The trend also risks deepening inequality. “What people often think is if they’ve dropped a borehole that water’s theirs… And the reality is nobody should be owning water. It’s not privatized. And that kind of thinking needs to end,” Dr. Adam asserted.
To demand action, WaterCAN is organizing a mass protest for water security. The peaceful protest is scheduled for November 1st from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in front of the City Council Chambers in Braamfontein. Dr. Adam urged affected residents to attend, stating, “We need the mayor to listen and government to listen as a whole.”