Joburg pipe spews water for day as residents see red
· Citizen
An unattended pipe burst in Industria in Johannesburg has put the spotlight on water wastage again.
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This week, residents saw red when a burst pipe, causing a water fountain in Watt Street in Industria, was left running for more than 24 hours, despite being reported to Joburg Water and DA and ANC councillors.
Industria burst pipe ran over 24 hours
Residents claimed the city finally responded on Wednesday, but many felt it was still unacceptable for the water to be left running for a day without action.
This follows the swift reaction by Joburg Water after DA Johannesburg mayoral candidate Helen Zille took a swim in a hole dug by Joburg Water in Douglasdale, which was left for over three years.
The hole was filled in the following day and has allegedly burst again.
Tarryn Johnston, a water intelligence analyst specialising in governance diagnostics and collapse pattern interpretation, said a municipal response time of more than 24 hours is not simply a service delivery delay.
“It reflects structural issues: ageing infrastructure, depleted technical teams, reactive rather than predictive maintenance and the absence of real time monitoring.
Ageing pipes, depleted teams and no real-time monitoring
“Every hour of unaddressed water loss is evidence of a system that can no longer see, interpret, or act at the speed required by a water-scarce nation,” she said.
WaterCAN’s Ferrial Adam said the situation in Gauteng has reached a critical point, with cities like Johannesburg, Tshwane, and Ekurhuleni routinely losing 30% to 34% of their water to leaks and losses, while Emfuleni experiences an alarming 71% loss.