Dry taps and broken promises: The erosion of gender equality

Recent water outages in Johannesburg are not just a municipal service delivery issue  or infrastructural issue, as claimed but a deep systemic issue deeply rooted in the  legacy of apartheid.  

During apartheid, urban planning deliberately prioritised white suburbs with robust  infrastructure while Black townships received minimal investment. After 1994, the  democratic government inherited these inequities.  

Many townships and informal settlements continue to rely on poorly maintained  systems, originally designed without long-term growth in mind. The result is the  devastating water crisis Johannesburg faces today. 

In Melville, a middle-class suburb in Johannesburg, residents endured 24 days without  running water, prompting a public briefing by Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero and  Johannesburg Water managing director Ntshavheni Mukwevho.  

Officials attributed the disruption to high demand and aging infrastructure, revealing  an erosion of state capacity and social trust.  

This signals the erosion of state capacity and social trust, where the routine failure of  basic infrastructure normalises precarity and deepens inequality in post-apartheid  urban life. 

The National Water Act 

Access to water was central to the democratic promise made in the National Water  Act (NWA) of 1998. 

The NWA centralises authority over water in the national government because it  declares water as a public resource that should be held in trust by the state, rather  than private property.  

The division of water into different categories, such as public water and private water,  normal flow and surplus water, which existed under the 1956 Water Act, was done  away with. All water thereafter had the same status in law.

This means that the privatisation of water is prohibited and all South African citizens  have equal water rights. 

Moreover, the NWA gives the Minister of Water and Sanitation the power to regulate  how water is allocated, used and protected. It requires users to obtain licenses for  significant water use, allows the state to set limits and permits the withdrawal or  suspension of rights if conditions are not met. 

For example, on Thursday, 19 February 2026, the minister of Water and Sanitation  Pemmy Majodina announced that additional measures have been implemented to  curb Johannesburg’s water crisis, including approval of Level 2 water restrictions in  high-use areas, controlled throttling of water supplies overnight and a temporary abstraction licence allowing an additional 200 million cubic metres per annum to be  allocated to Rand Water. 

However, in her statement, she said that this is not a long-term solution to the water  supply challenges being experienced in Gauteng, as it is just a temporary measure to  assist the municipal reservoir levels to recover.  

As a result, Johannesburg residents continue to endure the pain of the water crisis, with  the women being the most vulnerable group. 

Experiences of water crisis in Johannesburg 

Melville residents depended on community tankers that supplied 15 000 litres for  approximately 1 600 households, which translates to roughly 50 litres per household  per day. For larger families, that amount barely covers drinking, cooking and basic  washing, let alone broader household needs. 

At the same time, townships such as Meadowlands, Orlando East, and Pimville faced  similar outages under harsher conditions that are undignified and unbearable. In many  parts of Soweto, there are no community tankers stationed within easy reach.  

Soweto residents depend on intermittent deliveries from Johannesburg Water. When  tankers do not arrive, people travel to other areas in search of water. For families with  young children, the burden is acute. 

A female Meadowlands resident, Thandi Zulu, described waking each morning  uncertain whether there would be water, unable to cook and wash, and beginning the  workday already exhausted. 

Women at the epicentre of Johannesburg’s water crisis 

Women suffer more from the water outages in Johannesburg compared to their  counterparts, due to the gender inequalities that remain common in many households.  

Women are usually responsible for cooking, cleaning, childcare and caring for sick  family members. When taps run dry, they are the ones who must queue for water and walk long distances to collect it. 

The water crisis exacerbates existing gender inequalities. Despite gains in labour  market participation, women remain underrepresented in management positions and  face wage gaps, which makes it more difficult for them to make enough money to take  care of their financial and family needs. 

To tackle this issue, women must “make a plan” for survival by running small  businesses such as selling vegetables, operating salons or providing street food, to  sustain themselves and their families. 

However, prolonged water outages disrupt these enterprises. Salons require water for  washing and hair treatments; street food vendors depend on water for cooking and  hygiene. Without it, women lose clients or incur extra costs, compounding financial  insecurity. 

These unique experiences of women during the water crisis in Johannesburg raise  urgent questions about South Africa’s position in achieving Sustainable Development  Goal 5, which calls for gender equality that can be understood as the enjoyment of  equal rights, responsibilities, and opportunities for men and women, boys and girls. 

SDG 5 also promotes equal access to economic resources and productive  employment. Prolonged water outages in Johannesburg reduce women’s economic  independence and widen income gaps 

South Africa faces severe gender inequalities due to but not limited to, “plans and  policies” that have not been gender responsive by the government, which means that 

the government is failing to recognize the gender roles that women and men can play and how to implement policies that can directly empower women.  

Moreover, beyond business, women and girls need water for washing their bodies,  cleaning reusable sanitary products and maintaining basic hygiene. When water is  scarce, managing menstruation becomes difficult and sometimes unsafe.  

This can lead to infections, discomfort and emotional stress. 

In Johannesburg, where water outages often affect informal settlements and  townships, girls may miss school while women miss work during their periods because  there is not enough water in homes, work and school toilets. 

This undermines the government’s efforts to achieve SDG 5, which includes ensuring  equal access to education and ending discrimination against women and girls.  

In South Africa, there are high cases of GBV and human trafficking. Long walks to  water points or crowded collection sites, particularly at night, increase vulnerability to  harassment or violence against women, demonstrating that when infrastructure fails,  risk increases. 

Moreover, women spend a lot of hours securing water, which limits their ability to  engage in community leadership, civic spaces, or political processes, which is against  SDG 5, which emphasises women’s full and effective participation in decision-making.  

The water crisis in Johannesburg does not create inequality from scratch. It  intensifies patterns that are already embedded in the city’s social and spatial  structure. 

Women, already tasked with domestic labour, informal entrepreneurship and  caregiving, bear the brunt of service failures.  

Addressing water insecurity is therefore not merely a technical or municipal  challenge but a matter of social justice and gender equality. Ensuring sustainable  access to water is essential not only for health and livelihoods but also for advancing  South Africa’s constitutional promise of equality and its commitment to SDG 5. 

Solomon Musonza is an MA Sociology candidate at the University of Johannesburg.