By Pauline Odhiambo
An advisory by Johannesburg city authorities urging residents to take two-minute showers and to wash their cars only on weekends sparked controversies.
The South African city is currently in its yearly water-rationing period which often lasts throughout the country’s dry season between September and March.
Many of the city’s residents have been without water for nearly three weeks, with public water suppliers, Rand Water and Johannesburg Water, warning that failure to self-ration could “result in the collapse of the system”, according to a joint statement by the companies on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Residents have been advised to avoid watering lawns and gardens with clean drinking water and to refrain from filling up their swimming pools until consumption has reduced.
The directive also states that people should avoid cleaning paved areas and driveways with clean drinking water and to also turn off tap while brushing teeth.
Water scarcity
But some residents like Lunathi Ndlovu, who works at a spa in the heart of the city, says these directives were difficult to follow.
“I can’t deprive my clients of good facial and other body treatment that need lots of water in the name of rationing,” she tells TRT Afrika. “Is it not enough that we currently don’t even have good power supply because of load shedding?"
Instead of shifting the burden on citizens, she advised the authorities to improve water supply. " It’s about time the city authorities figured out a way for us to have water throughout the year instead of making us pay for their mismanagement,” she said.
Miriam Khumalo, a nurse at a clinic in Midrand also wonders why the advisory was given.
“A health facility must observe the highest standards of cleanliness at all times!” Khumalo tells TRT Afrika.
“We risk getting infections like UTIs and other more serious ones if we follow that directive,” she adds.
“At the end of a long day at work, I am going to take a long shower to wash off any lingering germs I could’ve picked from my job, so asking me to take a two minute shower is impossible,” she adds.
For Vincent Dlamini, a 24-year old who makes his living cleaning vehicles at carwash in Gauteng, the water shortage is a threat to his income.
“Telling people to wash their cars only on weekends is like taking food out of my mouth. How am I supposed to feed my family when washing cars is how I make money every day? The authorities need to step up and do better instead of killing our jobs,” he says.
Access to clean drinking water and sanitation is one of the key components of UN's sustainable development goals. It urges government, organisations and individuals to ensure better water supply and management particularly for the less privileged.
Gauteng started its yearly level 1 water restrictions on September 1 and is expected to run until 31 March 2024 to ensure a sustainable water supply. During this period, higher temperatures drives up demand for water.
But some residents say that rising temperatures should not interfere with water supply.
“Does it really still come as a shock that the demand for water will increase when it’s hot? Our usage is not excessive, it’s their planning that’s the problem,” says Cecil
Radebe who lives with his wife and three children at a suburb in Midrand. “We haven’t had little to no water flowing through taps for the past week. This is a management issue and not a demand problem.”
Rand Water however maintains that although its primary and secondary stations are operating at maximum capacity, the entity has been unable to keep its reservoirs at high levels due to increased consumption by customers in the city and surrounding areas.
