‘Every morning when you wake up there is no water’

Carrying two large buckets of water, Romeo van der Merwe goes home to where his bedridden mother is waiting. He will use the water to wash her, cook for her and wash her bedsheets, as she is no longer capable of doing these things herself.

As he walks across a shabby park to the small flat where his mother, Linda Freitas, lives, Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero is 500m up the road, making promises but without addressing the water crisis that Van der Merwe and many thousands face.

Van der Merwe lives in Eldorado Park, where there is water, but he has moved to Fietas near the city centre to take care of his mother. “There are many water problems here,” he says. “Every morning when you wake up there is no water to brush your teeth. You can’t live like this.

“Without water you don’t smell good, you can’t wash your clothes. We have animals, they need water as well. We are thrifty with the water. We drink only a few glasses and only wash where necessary.

“We must have water; without water you can’t do anything. It’s a problem helping my mother clean herself when there is no water. The city must do their work properly. I don’t care who they are, they must work for the people who voted for them.”

Freitas,74, who has to use an oxygen mask, says she has lived in the same flat for the past 40 years, but the water issue has recently worsened. “I am very sad about the water not running,” she says. “We have been without water now for the third week.”

Van der Merwe was able to get water from the borehole of Fietas community stalwart Yola Minnaar, because there is no water in the taps in the area and the surrounding suburbs of Melville, Brixton, Vrededorp, Greenside, Emmarentia, Westdene, Parktown West, Coronationville and Westbury.

Aunty Yola, as Minnaar is popularly known, has used the borehole on her property to help her community over the past nine years of irregular water supply to the area.

“The queues are so long,” she says. “I had to cut the hosepipe in half so that more people can get water quicker. The borehole has been supplying water nonstop. People are here queuing at 2am to get some water.”

Fietas falls in Johannesburg Water’s Commando System supply area, where most people have gone without water for three weeks. The new Brixton reservoir and tower are 10 months behind schedule as a result of contractors walking off the job due to nonpayment by Johannesburg Water.

Morero said the water facility was expected to become operational by the end of February. One of the pumps at the reservoir broke down two weeks ago, and it has not been repaired.

Ward councillor Kyle Jacobs said Johannesburg Water has not been able to say when the pump will be fixed. The broken pump means there is only one other pump working, significantly reducing the amount of water available.

Today, Sunday, is Day 18 without water in the greater Brixton area.

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