There is seemingly no end to the City of Joburg's water troubles, after the knock-on effect of a power failure at one treatment plant once again left residents with dry taps this week.

Former Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse, in her 30 days in office, vowed to ensure the maintenance, repair and replacement of Joburg Water's ageing infrastructure while clamping down on leaks and outages to ease the misery of the city's residents.

But in 16 months of a multi-coalition government, Johannesburg Water's challenges appear to be worse - and have been blamed on rolling blackouts.

This has left many parts of the city without water regularly - for days - due to constrained reservoirs and towers, with levels "critically low to empty" in some areas. And not only houses have been hit - schools, hospitals, old age homes and businesses are affected too.

This week, supply to several Johannesburg Water's systems was affected, including the Commando system comprising the Brixton, Hursthill and Crosby reservoirs, Waterval, Quellerina, Eagles Nest and Crown Gardens. This came after a reported power failure at Rand Water's Vereeniging treatment plant in the early hours of Monday, 20 March 2023, which affected the pumping capacity at the bulk supplier's Eikenhof pump station, resulting in Rand Water's Meredale reservoir and Johannesburg Water's Waterval reservoir being left empty.

While Joburg Water says pumping was restored to 100% at...