A Water Revolution — or an Admission of Failure?
Johannesburg residents have learned a new daily ritual: checking whether water will flow before planning their day. Taps run dry without warning, explanations come later — if at all — and households are expected to adjust.
It is in this context that the Mayor of Johannesburg has spoken of a “water revolution”: a future in which every household stores water in JoJo tanks and relies on rainwater harvesting to meet its needs. But a city without water does not need a revolution. It needs a functioning government..
At first glance, this sounds forward-thinking. Environmental. Practical. But when examined more closely, it raises an uncomfortable question:
Why is a city government planning for households to adapt to water failure instead of fixing the system meant to deliver it?
A JoJo tank is not infrastructure. It is an emergency measure.
When a mayor’s long-term vision relies on household water storage, it implicitly accepts that:
- Water interruptions are permanent
- Continuous municipal supply cannot be guaranteed
- Citizens must individually buffer themselves against state failure
This is not resilience. It is a lowering of expectations.
A government’s vision should describe where it is taking society, not how citizens should cope when it cannot perform its most basic duties.
Rainwater harvesting and household storage assume a great deal:
- Formal housing with adequate roof space
- Ownership rather than renting
- Space for tanks and pumps
- Money for installation, maintenance, and filtration
This vision excludes large portions of Johannesburg’s population: informal settlements, backyard dwellers, flat residents, and the urban poor.
A policy that only works for homeowners with disposable income is not a public solution. It is a private coping strategy dressed up as reform.
If water security depends on personal infrastructure, then access to water becomes yet another marker of inequality.
The mayor’s criticism of car washes using potable municipal water is not entirely misplaced. Commercial and industrial users should absolutely be regulated more strictly. Water recycling, alternative sourcing, and differentiated tariffs for high-volume users make sense.
But this is where an important distinction must be made:
Targeting inefficient commercial water use is not the same as shifting the burden of water security onto households.
One is regulation. The other is abdication.
Blurring the two allows the government to appear proactive while avoiding the harder task of repairing, maintaining, and expanding core infrastructure.
Planning for survival instead of governance
Perhaps the most concerning aspect of this “water revolution” is what it signals about the state’s mindset.
When citizens adapt successfully — storing water, harvesting rain, coping quietly — pressure on government decreases. Outages become less urgent. Accountability weakens. Failure is normalised.
Emergency measures become permanent policy.
And slowly, a constitutional right is reframed as a personal responsibility.
A real water vision would look different
A genuine water revolution would focus on:
- Fixing leaks and ageing pipes
- Reducing non-revenue water losses
- Expanding and maintaining bulk infrastructure
- Professionalising municipal water management
- Holding contractors and officials accountable
Household rainwater harvesting could play a supportive role—encouraged, incentivised, and integrated—but never be positioned as a substitute for municipal obligations.
Conclusion
A city does not need a revolution that teaches its residents how to survive without it.
It needs leadership that insists water supply is not optional, not seasonal, and not negotiable.
A government that plans for households to store water is not planning to govern.
It is planned to be endured.
About The Author
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