“Have to go to school without taking a bath”: Mr. fury in africans

Johannesburg, South Africa:

Already struggling without electricity for several hours a day, many South Africans now have to make do without water as power outages hit the supply system.

Provincial utility Rand Water said this week that taps ran dry in parts of Johannesburg and Pretoria due to a power failure at a pump station feeding reservoirs and water towers.

This further irked residents, who for months had to plan for mundane activities such as cooking and laundry based on daily blackout schedules.

Thomas Mbasa, a railway worker, said he took to showering at work – a luxury his children could not afford.

“(They) have to go to school without showering,” the 43-year-old told AFP.

He was among desperate locals who this week took to the streets in Soshangwe, a township north of the capital, to protest the situation.

Protesters disrupted traffic, blocked roads with stones and garbage.

“Sometimes we wait to see if the water comes back on in the middle of the night to wake the children so they can shower before it’s over again,” Mr Mbasa said, as the tires on the road behind him were burnt

burglary and sabotage

Africa’s most industrialized economy has been crippled by record power cuts over the past year, as debt-ridden state power firm Eskom’s troubles worsen.

The utility provides about 90 percent of the nation’s electricity.

But for years it has failed to keep pace with demand as it struggles to maintain its aging coal-fired infrastructure.

Wisne Mwasa, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Water and Sanitation, said the government was working with water utilities “to improve the situation”.

“(A) energy crisis is affecting water infrastructure,” she said.

One problem, Sarkar said, is that due to power cuts, the machinery is constantly being restarted and this accelerates breakdown.

It added that pumping stations and water treatment, which require a constant flow of electricity to function properly, have been badly affected.

Criminality has also contributed to the crisis, with Johannesburg’s municipality saying hundreds of water tanks could be stolen or broken into in 2022.

water scarcity country

Hospitals and schools have not been spared.

Kalafong Hospital in Pretoria went without water for two days over the weekend.

Ethel Malatji, a 21-year-old journalism student, said she and her colleagues at Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria were unable to cook, clean or shower.

“We don’t even have water to drink,” she said. She said her studies have also been disrupted after protesters burnt tires on the road she crosses to reach a part of the campus.

The problems have particularly, but not exclusively, affected the Gauteng province of Johannesburg.

Cape Town has had to close some of its beaches due to sewage spillage after a power failure at some of its sewer stations.

Rising demand has also put pressure on supplies in the country’s southeast, forcing authorities to implement water rationing.

Dewald van Niekerk, head of the African Center for Disaster Studies at North-West University, said it could become more common if energy and infrastructure problems are not addressed.

“Electricity is needed to run those pumps,” Mr van Niekerk said.

He warned that South Africa – already a water-scarce country – is set to experience extreme drought conditions over the next few years with the expected return of El Niño’s warm weather patterns.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)