Water Crisis Spirals as Johannesburg Residents Endure Weeks Without Water

Water Infrastructure Collapse Leaves Johannesburg Without Reliable Supply

Johannesburg is effectively living under Day Zero conditions. Prolonged water outages lasting days—and in some cases nearly three weeks—have stripped communities of reliable access to water, undermined dignity, and fuelled conflict at tanker points. Treating this as routine maintenance rather than a disaster is dangerous and irresponsible, and urgent national intervention is required to protect residents’ health, livelihoods and basic human rights.

Parts of Johannesburg in a De Facto Day Zero as Water Outages Deepen Crisis

WaterCAN warns that Johannesburg is effectively living under “Day Zero” conditions due to prolonged and recurring water outages caused by infrastructure failures, poor planning, and weak accountability by Johannesburg Water and Rand Water. Communities across the city have been without water for days—and in some cases nearly three weeks—leading to instability, reliance on tankers, and growing social tension as residents compete for limited supplies. WaterCAN argues that, although national disaster declarations have been made elsewhere for drought, Johannesburg’s crisis is equally severe and warrants urgent recognition. The organisation is calling on national government to declare Johannesburg a national disaster area to unlock emergency resources, enforce coordination, and ensure transparent communication, while demanding daily updates from Johannesburg Water and greater public engagement from Rand Water.