WATER POLITICS

One thing that all major cities have in common is often their proximity or access to water. Even cities considered to reside in the desert, like Phoenix and Las Vegas, get water from the nearby Salt and Colorado Rivers, respectively. Water is the lifeblood of human civilization, and therefore, all of the world’s largest and most ancient cities are connected to nearby bodies of water — except for one.

Johannesburg, South Africa, is the largest city in the world that is not situated near a significant source of water. This puts Johannesburg in a uniquely precarious situation. The city gets the vast majority of its water from the nearby enclave of Lesotho. Lesotho has spent years and millions of dollars developing its water-exporting infrastructure to feed the thirsty city of Johannesburg. South Africa buys millions of gallons of water from Lesotho and ships it into Johannesburg.

So why isn’t Johannesburg located near any major sources of water? It all has to do with how and when the city was founded.

Johannesburg is a relatively new city. It was founded in 1886 during the Witwatersrand Gold Rush. Once it was discovered that there were copious amounts of gold in the region, thousands of people flocked to the rocky region. The founding of Johannesburg is similar to that of San Francisco. It was due solely to the presence of gold. Up until that point, no one found much worth in the region surrounding Johannesburg. The discovery of gold changed everything.

Not only was Johannesburg founded in a location without any major water sources. The city was founded because there was no water in the area. The lack of water made the surrounding region largely devoid of farms, save for some scrubby farmsteads dotted about. This made prospecting for gold easier because there were no major farms or crops to impede the hunt for gold.

The official history of the city, located on an official website, reads in part:

?Most? of the world’s great cities were founded close to plentiful water supplies. Johannesburg may be the only city whose location was chosen because there was no water.?

The discovery of gold on the Reef threw the Boer government of President Paul Kruger into confusion, because of the speed with which prospectors arrived and set up camp on local farms, indifferent to the rights of the landowners.

Over the coming decades, Johannesburg exploded in size. Today, Johannesburg is the largest city in South Africa by a long shot. It has over 5 million inhabitants and the metropolitan area consists of over 8 million people. Johannesburg remains ringed by the world’s deepest and most expansive gold mines. There are also serious deposits of natural diamonds located around the city. De Beers, the international diamond conglomerate, has a major headquarters in the Johannesburg area. The vast number of people in the Johannesburg region has put a massive strain on the precarious water supply.

Earlier in 2024, the city was hit with an unprecedented water crisis, which scared residents. For a number of weeks in the heat of late summer, the city faced serious water disruptions. Over half of the city’s households saw disruptions in their water supply. The government blamed a lightning strike that knocked out a major municipal pump, but experts say that the issue is deeper than that. The city continues to draw millions of gallons of water from the nearby Vaal Dam in addition to the water being shipped in from Lesotho. But that water has started to dwindle.

South Africa has long been plagued by planned rolling blackouts because the power grid is not robust enough to sustain the millions of residents in its major cities. This is called “load-shedding” and it is a familiar term for anyone who has lived in South Africa. But now, citizens are being asked to participate in “water-shedding” where the water supply is strategically reduced to try and preserve the reservoirs.

NPR ran a story that says:

South Africa’s state-owned power company, Eskom, triggers planned blackouts in Johannesburg and other parts of the country, which it calls “load-shedding,” saying it needs to ease pressure on the overstretched electricity grid — sometimes for as long as 10 hours a day.

Now, city residents have added a new bleak term to their lexicon: “water-shedding.”

And there are other signs of decay: Trash lies uncollected for days and the streets are riddled with potholes, which some frustrated citizens have taken to spray-painting with the ironic tagline: “Thank you ANC.”

The failing infrastructure does not discriminate and has affected people of all incomes and across racial lines, from the rich leafy suburbs to the bustling townships.

Infrastructure problems have multiplied in recent years which each issue compounding on the other. Broken pipes have wasted water and cut off vital supplies to low income neighborhoods. Rolling power outages and extreme weather have put a strain on the pumps leaving significant portions of the water supply unable to be moved to where it needs to go.

In other cities with access to greater quantities of water, these problems could be addressed and potentially even fixed. However, Johannesburg is struggling because the crumbling infrastructure is coming in the face of shrinking water supplies. The city is not able to tap into any new sources of water to try and relieve the issue.

To try and circumnavigate the problems, the rich and influential members of Johannesburg are digging illegal wells and “boreholes” to try and tap into the meager groundwater supply with mixed results.

The lack of water has also strained the city’s economy and shipping. Johannesburg is considered to be one of the largest “dry ports” in the world with most of the goods having to be shipped in via rail or truck because there are no navigatable water sources nearby.

It is hard to be positive about the future of Johannesburg’s water supply or infrastructure, and it is hard to say what the situation will look like ten years down the road. In the meantime, Johannesburg is providing an acute lesson as to why most metropolitan areas are located on major sources of water. It turns out that having reliable access to water is an important part of the recipe for a major city.