Joburg Households Set Up Their Own Network to Deal with the Water Crisis

• Amid rolling water outages across Johannesburg, Ridgeway resident Zubair Patel of the Southern Suburbs Community Forum and Water Project is spearheading a project to deliver water to neighbours in need.
• Following an extended water outage in 2022, Patel started a borehole network that today connects more than 100 households across 15 suburbs in the south.
• Residents willing to share their water during prolonged municipal outages sign up to the network, reducing reliance on municipal tankers in the area.

In Ridgeway, south of Johannesburg, Zubair Patel watches as water flows into a mobile 1,000-litre tanker. Printed on its side is a simple message: “The best form of charity is to give someone water” – a quote attributed to the Prophet Muhammad and the reasoning behind the community’s water distribution project.

Patel is a community leader and founder of the Southern Suburbs Community Forum and Water Project

Nearby, residents arrive carrying empty bottles and buckets, forming a queue to access a hosepipe laid over the wall of a private home. A sign on the wall sets out the rules for collection. In the queue, neighbours greet each other. The process has become routine.

Ridgeway resident Zubair Patel of the Southern Suburbs Community Forum and Water Project is spearheading a project to deliver water to neighbours in need.

Patel started the small neighbourhood forum three decades ago. “Suburbs have their own dynamics and people are very isolated. People don’t have much to do with each other. I didn’t grow up like this. I’m not used to it. I’m going to do something about it,” he said.

The forum became a launch pad for several community initiatives, and in 2022, following an extended water outage, Patel started a borehole network that today connects more than 100 households across 15 suburbs in the south. Residents willing to share their water during municipal outages sign up to the network, reducing reliance on municipal tankers.

A year later, when it became clear that some residents were too elderly or ill to collect water themselves, a door-to-door delivery project was introduced.

One resident donated a small bakkie, another provided a flow bin, and as word spread, so did the list of volunteers. Through collective funding, the community purchased a tanker and trailer to expand the initiative’s reach.

Once the tanker is filled, volunteers deliver water to residents unable to access the homes listed in the borehole network.

For families without transport and with small children, travelling to neighbouring suburbs to collect water is not always possible.

When GroundUp visited the project, a mother and her two young children, were waiting outside a low-cost housing complex with an empty 10-litre bucket and two 5-litre bottles. Twelve-year-old volunteer Ismail Tayob helped fill the mother’s containers, which she carried home in two trips.

The team then headed to the Annie Burger retirement village to check the water levels in the two water tanks donated the previous year. Deliveries often continue late into the evening, sometimes finishing just before midnight.

Yusra Domingo, who has liver cancer, lives on a hill where the water supply is inconsistent. She is one of the many residents who say they would be destitute without the water delivered by Patel. “I’m sick, I can’t really carry buckets of water,” said Domingo.

Johannesburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala has welcomed the community-led initiative.

“The approach described reflects a commendable level of coordination, social cohesion, and proactive problem-solving by the community,” Shabalala said.

“However, the City remains committed to maintaining and improving reliable, safe, and equitable access to water through ongoing infrastructure investment, system upgrades, and operational interventions.”

This story is produced by Our City News, a non-profit newsroom that serves the people of Johannesburg.

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