Pretoria - Water was the final straw that broke the camel’s back for residents in high-lying parts of Pretoria, who yesterday took to the streets demanding an end to the ongoing “drought”.
While mayor Randall Williams held talks with Rand Water on the crisis, the streets of Soshanguve and surrounds were on fire.
This was despite the City’s numerous pleas with the public to conserve water to boost supply to aid high-lying areas in the north and east of the metro.
Last week, the City of Tshwane implemented stage 2 water restrictions, saying high-lying areas were at risk of draining reserves amid load shedding.
The shortage of water in high lying areas of Tshwane saw frustrated residents of Soshanguve take to the streets to block the roads with burning tyres and rocks while mayor, Randall Williams, held urgent talks with Rand Water to plead for relief #WaterOutages #Water #Loadshedding pic.twitter.com/5X8KnA0m8V
— Pretoria News (@pretorianews) January 31, 2023
MMC for utility services and regional operations, Daryl Johnston, said at the time they were instructed by Rand Water to increase water flow control due to high usage and pumping challenges caused by load shedding.
The City called on residents and businesses to limit their consumption. Johnston said this was a serious situation for the city, part of a water-scarce area.
Residents of blocks K, L, G and H in Soshanguve said the water from the tankers was not healthy enough for drinking; their children had diarrhoea almost every day.
They said there were simply not enough tankers to provide sufficient water for every family, to the extent that they had to choose between cooking, bathing or flushing their toilets.
During yesterday’s protest, residents had a run-in with police, who fired rubber bullets at the crowd.
The residents had blocked some of the area’s busiest roads such as Ruth First Road and the M39, which starts at the end of the Mabopane Highway (R80).
They also burnt tyres and blocked roads on the M43, the link-road between the two Tshwane University of Technology campuses and Soshanguve Crossing Mall. Students and university buses were allowed to pass through. Campus security closed gates as a precautionary measure.
Mpho Rashokeng and Lesego Morobi said water interruptions had been occurring for nearly four weeks now. “The last three weeks of January we have been forced leave our taps open so that buckets could fill up from 3am. When we wake up at about 6am we have load shedding.
“We are still dealing with the water shortage, then there is no electricity. Last Saturday we did not have electricity the whole day. It was not load shedding.
“Just when they heard the community was about to protest at 8pm, boom, they switch our lights back on. We are the sacrifices when they have to cut off someone, clearly. They can shoot us with rubber bullets, but we will not stop our demonstration until we have water consistently,” said Morobi.
Updating residents, Williams said they were able to hold an urgent, constructive meeting with Rand Water on the supply challenges plaguing Tshwane.
“Our focus was on the inability to get our high-lying water reservoirs to recover in Soshanguve, Mooikloof, Groenfontein and Laudium. These areas have been grappling with little to no water for over a week. I welcomed the constructive commitment from Rand Water to ensure our teams work together to better manage water supply.
“Late in the evening (Monday) we noted these reservoirs began to recover due to increased water pressure.”
Williams said the City would engage Rand Water further on the water quota allocated to Tshwane. Out of the three metros in Gauteng, Tshwane receives the least amount of bulk water.
Williams said they would interrogate the matter further, particularly because Tshwane was the largest metro in the province in terms of geographical size, and had a significant manufacturing sector.
Pretoria News