Communities in Johannesburg are helping each other out as reservoirs in the city are running dry during the ongoing droughts.
Some community members woke to another day without water in their taps, and shops had even run dry in the areas.
After seeing a heartbreaking post on social media about a mom not being able to bath her baby, as she hadn’t had water for over 2 days, Colleen Jean Foyn jumped into action.
She offered her home to assist and sparked off a community driven response with others offering their help each other.
Hundreds of people in Johannesburg have started posting in groups and on their own personal social media platforms, offering to help each other with water assistance in any way. Use #WaterShare to get involved with the conversation.
‘Johannesburg Water’ said the towers were almost empty due to high consumption. The reservoirs would only be able to recover at night when usage dropped, Joburg Water said.
The organization has appealed to people to use water more sparingly.
Joburg Water spokesperson Tidimalo Chuene said the Vaal Dam was low and level 2 water restriction were already in force.
“Residents are advised to reduce consumption to immediate household use only that is drinking‚ cook and toilet. This is to ensure that the reservoir recovers to a point where it can cater for all. The City of Johannesburg is still under level 2 water restrictions and receiving 15% less water from Rand Water‚” Joburg Water said in a statement.
“We urge residents to please cut out things they don’t need to avoid getting to level 3. We don’t want it to get to this stage as this will cause wide-scale water service disruptions,” said Chuene.
Level-2 water restrictions are:
- No use of any irrigation or sprinkler systems for watering of gardens with municipal water. Watering only before 6am or after 6pm with a hand-held hosepipe.
- No filling of pools with municipal water. Top up to allow filter to work only. It is recommended that pool owners invest in a cover as this significantly reduces evaporation – which is more than 1.2 metres a year for the average pool.
- No washing of cars or cleaning of paved areas with a hose pipe using municipal water.
The Vaal Dam is currently sitting on 27%… which is 2% away from a massive problem for the city. We need to save 15% of our water usage in order to get through this drought, and perhaps make us change our water wastage habits!
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Shower with a bucket so the bucket collects excess water and boil that water on stove to wash dishes or use it to flush toilet.