Tsunami of water tanker costs floods Joburg

From Pumla-Mqashi to Selby, Ennerdale to Sandton, Claremont to Ivory Park, water tankers have become a part of daily life for everyone in Johannesburg.

As the city’s water infrastructure crumbles and Joburg Water battles huge backlogs and limited finances, water tankers are now expensively conveying water to more households than ever before.

Recently mayor Dada Morero announced that Joburg Water had acquired 16 new tankers, taking the total to 20, as part of its efforts to tackle the crisis and reduce dependence on external providers. The city plans to add more tankers.

Morero said this “strategic step is intended to navigate around the challenges posed by costly and often questionable tender procedures for purchasing water tankers”.

As Johannesburg’s use of water tankers has risen over the past five years, so has the cost: from R35m to R165.5m.

The auditor-general this week released an audit showing that more than 20% of South Africa’s 257 municipalities spent about R2.32bn on water tanker services in financial 2024, with R420m of that classified as irregular expenditure.

Joburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala said the 20 tankers that had already been bought, plus the additional tankers it planned to buy over the next three years, would replace all the vehicles now being operated by contractors.

“Of the 16 [already delivered], 10 are in rotational use and six are ready to be allocated to regions,” she said.

Four more were due to be delivered before the end of the month.

The cost of a new 12,000l tanker is R2m and an 18,000l vehicle is R2.6m. These prices exclude VAT.

Currently the utility’s three contractors have 136 tankers available. “The 136 tankers are a combination of day-to-day needs and emergencies. We pay only for what we use,” she said, adding:

• the contractor for the northern regions (Cosmo City, Northgate, Fourways, Kya Sands, Randburg, Midrand and Sandton) is contracted for 20 day-to-day use tankers, with another 30 available for emergency use;
• the contractor for the southern regions (Lenasia, Soweto, Eldorado Park) is contracted for 40 day-to-day tankers and 21 for emergencies; and
• a third contractor was contracted for 25 emergency-only water tankers, as and when the city needs them.

The operating expenditure for tankers in this financial year is R140m. This covers routine daily transport of water to informal settlements as well as tanker use for water supply emergencies, Shabalala said. Each water tanker in use by the city did between three and five trips a day.

The increasing dependence on water tankers in Johannesburg is unacceptable. Tankers were meant to be an emergency measure — not a permanent substitute for reliable, piped water. Their continued use represents a failure of governance, systemic neglect and an opportunity for corruption and profiteering

—  Ferrial Adam, WaterCAN executive manager

One of the demands of the Johannesburg Water Crisis Committee, a civil society organisation, is for the city to reduce its reliance on water tankers.

The committee and WaterCAN — which describes itself as “a national initiative dedicated to safeguarding South Africa’s water resources through citizen-driven action, credible data and accountable governance” — were among groups that organised a protest on November 1.

Ferrial Adam, executive manager of WaterCAN, said: “The increasing dependence on water tankers in Johannesburg is unacceptable. Tankers were meant to be an emergency measure — not a permanent substitute for reliable, piped water. Their continued use represents a failure of governance, systemic neglect and an opportunity for corruption and profiteering.”

The civil society groups want:

• Joburg Water to issue a clear plan and timeline to phase out tanker use;
• immediate publication of all water tanker contracts, including the cost per tanker per day;
• transparent accounting of the total expenditure on tanker services over the past three years; and
• speedy action on allegations and evidence of corruption.

Late last year amaBhungane reported that two little-known companies, Nutinox and Builtpro Construction, had been awarded a R263m tender to supply the city with a total of 70 tankers for the next three years.

An incumbent service provider, LTC Holding, has approached the high court to have the tender set aside. The matter has not been finalised.

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