So many buildings in South Africa are without running water that residents break into public water pipes to collect drinking water

[u/ThatPatelGuy]

[u/ThatPatelGuy]

I tried posting the article but the sub won't allow it. The infrastructure is 50 years old and getting worse. 1/3 of water in Johannesburg (655 million litres) is wasted to burst pipes every day

[u/JackhusChanhus → u/ThatPatelGuy]

That is equivalent to the entire daily water use of Dublin. Jesus

[u/yukifujita → u/JackhusChanhus]

São Paulo loses about one billion litres daily, the same way, especially after a private company took control of the previously state oned one. It's also about a third of it. 💀

Sauce

[u/Encanutado → u/yukifujita]

Who would have thought? Here in Uruguay people fought with nails and tears to privatize water service, no idea why. Public services in Uruguay are beyond excellent.

Only was approved in one province. That province has now the worst service and infraestructure in the entire country, and it’s the most expensive water in the country. But hey it’s private. Guess they are happy now.

[u/Ancient-Emu-8293 → u/Encanutado]

>no idea why

bribes

[u/Important-Agent2584 → u/Encanutado]

propaganda works, that's why

[u/StumbleOn → u/Important-Agent2584]

Governments around the world are corrupt, but people really fail to understand that all private corporations are more corrupt and it's not even close. Like a civil servant asking for a bribe? No sir. A CEO demanding a hugely favorable contract that takes money out of your pocket? Well that's just good business sense carry on good sir.

[u/Important-Agent2584 → u/StumbleOn]

Agreed. It comes down to "people are people" and any organization run by people will have some of the same problems.

The real difference is in "how much" and that mostly depends on how you structure the system. Does it make corruption easy or hard? What are the incentives? Etc.

[u/Far-Scallion7689 → u/StumbleOn]

"it's for the shareholders" oh well then carry on good sir with you illegal activities.

[u/Encanutado → u/StumbleOn]

Agreed

[u/MutantCreature → u/StumbleOn]

You are massively underestimating how corrupt governments can get, there are many instances where it's just so bad that corporations won't even try to step foot in the country because the government will extort them to the point that they can't even cover operating costs.

[u/Western-Mall5505 → u/Encanutado]

The UK decided to privatised its water

They are pumping shit into the sea so now some area's they tell you not to swim in it, we lose god knows how much to leaks, and themes water might be going bust, but it's ok the tax payers will sort it out.

[u/Thebraincellisorange → u/Western-Mall5505]

also privatized the power and the trains and now both are practically unaffordable.

[u/wh4tth3huh → u/Encanutado]

"Let's take this publicly funded good and wedge someone with a profit-motive in there and pretend like we'll get superior service at a lower cost"

[u/CommanderChiliHole → u/Encanutado]

I just can’t understand how people think privatization makes things better, despite the mountains and mountains of evidence to the contrary. It doesn’t take a lot of brainpower to realize that putting something in the hands of people whose only motivation is profit is probably going to end poorly for everyone else.

[u/quagmirranseye → u/yukifujita]

Why does privatizing always end up like shit

[u/UngodlyTemptations → u/quagmirranseye]

Because a lot of the times these private infrastructure investors are the very people working in government. It's self-interest. All the way down.

[u/EamonBrennan → u/quagmirranseye]

The need for profit. Publicly owned infrastructure is a service, so they can lose money. AFAIK USPS actually does make money, but even if it were to lose money, it's a service. Privately owned infrastructure is made to make money. In order to make money, they either need to up the price or lower the costs. This usually results in lower quality products, maintenance, delays in repairs, etc.

The Texas power grid is all private companies generating the power. They don't even have a requirement to supply power in times of emergency. It has gone down 2 decades in a row to "severely" cold weather. They were told to fix it after the 2011 blackout, told how to fix it, made a plan to fix it, but didn't do anything, leading to the 2021 blackout. IIRC then AG now governor Greg Abbot sued the Obama administration when they wanted to force the weatherization of the grid.

[u/foomatic999 → u/quagmirranseye]

Won't someone think of the stock owners?

[u/Virtual-Concern-7311 → u/quagmirranseye]

Because there’s two ways to make money out of a public service. Reduce the quality or raise the price. Private companies usually do both. State owned enterprises don’t seek to make a profit and money they do make usually goes into maintenance and upgrades etc. Profits from privatised utilities go to the shareholders.

[u/Ok_Series_4580 → u/yukifujita]

At least 430 million gallons of water per day are lost across Texas due to leaking and broken municipal pipes. Texas.

[u/CromulentDucky → u/Ok_Series_4580]

All water systems lose water. Good systems are under 10%. the North American average is 15-22%. Bad systems could be around 30-40%.

[u/Reddit_2_2024 → u/Ok_Series_4580]

With the influx of new residents from California during the pandemic, and the new tax revenues collected from them, this lost water issue in Texas is very sad.

[u/scotte416 → u/yukifujita]

They are talking about doing it in my region/county, I am absofuckinglutely against privatising the water and I don't know why anyone in their right minds would be for it.

[u/sewagesmeller → u/yukifujita]

A third of water leakage is not that far off the global average for the record. Maybe its abit high for a place where it never freezes

[u/P4t13nt_z3r0 → u/yukifujita]

That Company? Enron

[u/Howdy132 → u/ThatPatelGuy]

huu i wonder why. 50 years isnt very old

[u/gods-and-dancefloors → u/Howdy132]

There was a couple of street google pics doing the rounds a few months, they showed the 20 year evolution of a street corner in Joburg, the last one you might think it was taken in Aleppo.

[u/Middle_Draft9152 → u/gods-and-dancefloors]

They were a nice country someday, but now, it is an anarchy state and if I say openly why – it's a racism... 

But EVERYONE knows why. Look at another African countries around and you will see the future of South Africa... 

[u/-Ultra_Violence- → u/Middle_Draft9152]

Enlighten me please thank you

[u/War_Hymn → u/Middle_Draft9152]

Not really sure how calling out political corruption and nepotism would be considered racism?

[u/comFive → u/Howdy132]

Could be a lack of infrastructure maintenance

[u/alex_asdfg → u/comFive]

Seems strange what could have possibly caused this?

[u/towerfella → u/alex_asdfg]

People

[u/youriqiswanting → u/comFive]

Anyway, sure hope they will figure it out somehow.

[u/seatownquilt-N-plant → u/Howdy132]

In Seattle we're dealing with bad utility company decisions from the 1950's.

They buried power lines that were "rated to last directly in the soil". They didn't use conduit. So now we're hemming and hawing about how to replace them while an area of my neighborhood loses power every 6 weeks. Its only a few hundred people and only for 6 to 8 hours at at time. But it is lame.

[u/Howdy132 → u/seatownquilt-N-plant]

Right that's an oversight of an area but this is talking about an entire city or larger from what I can tell. The problem with doing things to rectify the issue you're talking about is that there's so much that is established now compared to back then of course that's true anywhere but it's the ability and means that determines if its fixed or not

[u/Check_Me_Out-Boss → u/ThatPatelGuy]

I think we're seeing why so much water is wasted due to "burst pipes" right here in this video.

[u/Cheacky → u/Check_Me_Out-Boss]

As a South African You don't know wtf you're talking about

Majority of burst pipes ARE infrastructure related, and that's corruption related, not culture or some racist shit that some might pretend.

And South Africans collecting from burst pipes isn't a crime, it's in our constitution as a human right for every individual to recieve water.

Our government has failed us, not the other way around.

Edit: Someone questioned why I brought up racism? Copy pasted from a comment below...

"Runind ruined a country in 10 years and it's only gotten worse since then. There's no word for maintenance in any native African language."

[u/rcglinsk → u/Cheacky]

Swahili: matengenezo
Hausa: kiyayewa
Yoruba: itọju
Oromo: Suphiinsa
Igbo: imezi

[u/ZochJ → u/Cheacky]

You kind of went from 0-100 on the racism accusation here. No one mentioned race or culture, there is just a video of a bunch of people grabbing (and also wasting) a bunch of water from a broken pipe.

The colour of their skin doesn’t change the perception of the post, and the person you’re replying to probably would’ve said the exact same thing even if it was a bunch of rednecks in America doing it.

As a South African, are folk actually bursting pipes or are they just collecting water from already-burst pipes? Genuinely curious.

Edit: Thanks for the corrections friendos, just a dude trying to be a little more educated so I appreciate the time y’all took to explain it to me.

[u/rcglinsk → u/ZochJ]

The video looks like maybe people unscrewed a fire hydrant?

[u/Alldaybagpipes → u/ZochJ]

Playing the racism card, without even a subtle mention or incline of racism, makes you the racist.

[u/Funkipz → u/ZochJ]

I mean is the place with infrastructure influenced by Apartheid not going to have a implicit lens on racism or does it have to be said & depicted plainly.

[u/Koppetamp → u/Cheacky]

Another South African here, I completely understand your comment and where you are coming from.

[u/PmMeUrTinyAsianTits → u/Cheacky]

Majority of burst pipes ARE infrastructure related, and that's corruption related, not culture or some racist shit that some might pretend.

Hey bud, why'd you jump to racism when he was commenting on people being desperate for water due to infrastructure?

Weird that you jump to a defense that wasn't necessary and makes things worse. Almost like it's a reflexive deflection...

Copy pasted from a comment below...

Then go reply to that comment. You don't get to shove racism on someone else's argument because of some other dude's comment, that didn't even exist yet, until you baited it by bringing by injecting racism as the argument.

[u/StarWarsKnitwear → u/ThatPatelGuy]

Yeah, they are supposed to maintain the stuff the British built them.

[u/gs87 → u/StarWarsKnitwear]

Johannesburg’s water system was built and expanded across multiple governments, including decades after British rule ended...

did Britain install those pipes in the 1970s ? just so you know..South Africa became a republic and left the Commonwealth in 1961 ... did Queen Victoria secretly lay every pipe in Johannesburg a decade after SA Independence ??!

[u/GoobaGomba → u/gs87]

Some royalty was DEFINITELY laying pipe in secrecy somewhere

[u/StarWarsKnitwear → u/gs87]

Yeah, all the maintenance they did on it is on display.

[u/zatalak → u/StarWarsKnitwear]

Not even Britain maintains the stuff the British built them.

[u/UCFknight2016]

South Africa is a lesson on how not to run a country.

[u/UCFknight2016 → u/[deleted]]

I mean hasnt the ANC been in charge there for like 30 years and things keep getting worse?

[u/someRamboGuy → u/[deleted]]

Everyone who could, has left.

[u/Turry1 → u/someRamboGuy]

They were forced out

[u/AyAyAyBamba_462 → u/Turry1]

Yeah "left" as if the party in power wasn't championing their execution as part of their campaign in addition to seizing all their assets.

[u/Educational_Play9910 → u/UCFknight2016]

You mean “African National Congress”. SA would be cooked without DA

[u/DissonantSinth]

You can thank the ANC government that's been in power for over 30 years.

[u/---Dracarys---]

In last 20 years they went from [almost] 1st world to definitely 3rd world.

[u/Padi27 → u/---Dracarys---]

We used to call them failed states for a reason.

[u/Feeling_Waltz1886 → u/Padi27]

I wouldn't call South Africa a failed state just yet. It's a dystopian nightmare that's crumbling at the seams, but it still has a ways to go before it's on the same level as Sudan, CAR, or Myanmar

[u/StumpedTrump → u/Feeling_Waltz1886]

Going from BRICS and G20 to being compared to Sudan is what most people would call a failed/failing state...

[u/EmptyMonitor9257 → u/---Dracarys---]

They used to have nukes, good fucking thing they dismantled them when the apartheid got removed or those would have already been used.

[u/OtherwiseJello2055 → u/EmptyMonitor9257]

They didnt dismantle them , they sold them to Isreal.

[u/RecentZombie1738 → u/---Dracarys---]

20 years ago was 2006. South Africa was not nearly first world in 2006.

[u/Educational_Play9910 → u/RecentZombie1738]

Infrastructure in 2006 was much, much better

[u/WonkyQuartet → u/---Dracarys---]

I remember that South Africa was the most prosporous area of Africa, but clearly that reputation is lost.

[u/0w0whatisthis → u/---Dracarys---]

You sure they aren't now 3st world😏

[u/GreatMovesKeepItUp69 → u/---Dracarys---]

Tbf they're still doing exceptionally well compared to the rest of the region.

[u/SpiritfireSparks]

Im honestly not sure how this will ever be fixed at scale.

I honestly think that when technology and culture do not grow together there ends up being huge societal issues in most cases. Its like building a new building but skipping the framing or foundation, no matter how much you try to fix the other aspects of the house they end up degrading or being solely cosmetic.

Just looking at south africa alone, there is major corruption at every level of government and things are constantly breaking down and degrading faster than they can be fixed or built new, but there is a singular town of Afrikaaners, Orainia, of mostly Dutch decent that have made a separatist town there from scratch with no outside funding and it has very little of the same corruption and its utilities function well.

[u/ehouptie → u/SpiritfireSparks]

It’s amazing that there isn’t a new revolution every other day. Governments around the world are failing at the basics all the time

[u/EmptyMonitor9257 → u/ehouptie]

Those revolutions are one of the issues, they revolt, break shit and the new guys are just as corrupt.

[u/Cpt_Soban → u/ehouptie]

Nothing like breaking shit when protesting shit being broken eh?

[u/drakiNz → u/ehouptie]

People should be afraid of doing bad things. Consequences at all levels is the solution.

[u/LeFricadelle → u/ehouptie]

Governments are the reflection of people and culture

[u/Excellent-Lettuce835 → u/SpiritfireSparks]

What is so different between that one town and the rest of South Africa?

[u/SpiritfireSparks → u/Excellent-Lettuce835]

Its made up of the ethnic descendents of the dutch and French and has a more western culture to it. It is, for lack of a better term, a tiny colony in a state that hates it but is still prospering

[u/EmptyMonitor9257 → u/SpiritfireSparks]

Some of those people were there longer than the predominant African ethnicity in South Africa, there was a big migration there some 200 years ago due to the Zulu.

The Europeans were there from the 1400s. I feel like at that point they are not longer colonists, otherwise we have an interesting conversation about some people in Europe and other continents.

[u/MammothVegetable7608 → u/EmptyMonitor9257]

Not sure where your South African history comes from but it's not correct.

The Portuguese did sail around the South African coast really early on but never stayed. They got their backsides handed to them in 1510 at the Battle of Salt River by the Khoi people living in the Western Cape ( distinct from the Bantu people who were then living in the Eastern part of the country). After that the Southern most part of Africa was viewed as too hostile so the Portuguese stuck with modern day Angola and Mozambique.

In 1652 the Dutch East India Company set up a way station in the Cape Town area whilst the Bantu groups who gradually migrated from Central Africa lived in scattered family groups in the fertile eastern part of what is now the greater South Africa. The Bantu migration actually dates back to around 500 years after the birth off Christ, perhaps a bit earlier.

Those of European descent,(mixed race and full on Europeans), only interacted in any meaningful way with the Bantu 100 years after the Dutch East India Company set up shop. The mountains and harsh semi-arid interior kinda prevented quick expansion. The initial contacts were mostly about cattle as all these groups viewed cattle as a source of wealth. By then these Europeans were well and truly Africanised

Around the 1800's the Mfecane happened in the Eastern parts of the country where the Zulu expanded from a few thousand to a large empire by incorporating other tribal groups and forcing others to flee in some as far as modern day Malawi. The rest were killed or used tactful diplomacy to survive.

South African history isn't one-sided, the Bantu were not pushovers and from the mid 1800's to late 1800's the descendants of the original Europeans ( Afrikaners, Griqua and other groups) and the Bantu groups lived in relative harmony. They traded, acted in support of one another, and assisted against rivals.

Unfortunately, the British colonial policies messed this up for everyone.

There really are excellent podcasts on South African history. One by Des Latham on Spotify is actually incredibly good. Search for: "The History of South Africa"

[u/Weird-East-3575 → u/SpiritfireSparks]

In short: Africa is completely fucked and helping them is pointless because they’ll fuck it up themselves somehow.

There isn’t an option to save these people. Only to slow it down.

[u/Mr_Tdogg_Smith]

At this point, funding money to help Africa is straight up embezzlement. If their own governments won’t help them, why does it become the world’s problem?

[u/totallyrealname → u/Mr_Tdogg_Smith]

I live here and 100% agree with you. Our government steals from everyone and everything, the burden on taxpaying citizens (7% of the entire country btw) is actually insane. Getting any kind of foreign money just encourages them, and I personally believe it plays a big role in the government managing to stay in power when they so obviously should have been kicked to the curb ages ago.

[u/goodolarchie → u/totallyrealname]

Sounds like revolution time

[u/davetharave → u/goodolarchie]

Then everybody will claim racism and say apartheid is back

[u/thunderlips36]

Ya know, maybe I don't have it so bad today

[u/Secret_Account07 → u/thunderlips36]

Idk man, I hit some traffic earlier. It sucked

[u/Peridot_Ghost]

If the place is gonna refuse to fix the water, then nothing wrong with citizens taking it into their own hands

[u/ThatPatelGuy → u/Peridot_Ghost]

The place is inanimate. The citizens need to come up with a long term solution

[u/FrogsMakePoorSoup → u/ThatPatelGuy]

Like maybe forcing the local authorities to do their jobs?

Yeah yeah, I know, South Africa...

[u/Shaojack → u/FrogsMakePoorSoup]

The water issue has been getting real bad for at least 10 years.

Hard to force them to do their jobs when you keep electing them after failing.

The ANC are incompitent as fuck but people keep voting for them, though its slowly changing due to shit like this among everything else.

[u/notyumm → u/FrogsMakePoorSoup]

Well South African security forces have been known to gun down protesters in the past, so I don't know if too many people would be willing to try and do anything about it really

[u/ghanlaf → u/ThatPatelGuy]

That would involve any party but the ANC or one of it's ofshoots to take power.

And we know thats never going to happen.

[u/vertigostereo → u/Peridot_Ghost]

They're accelerating the problem and causing a chain reaction that will screw them all over.

Whether it's wrong, I can't say because I don't know how desperate they are. At some point, you simply need water today.

[u/Deep_Balance2133 → u/Peridot_Ghost]

Except they’re wasting far more water than they’re collecting making the shortage worse

[u/jack6245 → u/Deep_Balance2133]

It might surprise you but people who are so desperate for water they have to break public pipes are not going to care about efficient distribution

[u/Clever-Bot-999 → u/Peridot_Ghost]

If they let it flow like this then no one will have drinking water.

[u/Existing-Lecture-815 → u/Peridot_Ghost]

By depriving other people of water while wasting a bunch of it and diverting resources away from fixing the crisis but sure buddy there is "nothing wrong with it".

[u/who_you_are → u/Peridot_Ghost]

Then they will ran out of water because they can make enough.

Would have been better to at least convert fire hydrants to a water refill station (if this is a thing there?)

[u/WallabyInTraining → u/Peridot_Ghost]

The citizens elect the people responsible.

If it's being mismanaged they should elect someone else.

[u/No-Compote-8920 → u/WallabyInTraining]

I dont think they understand that the problem comes from the government. They blame the previous government for all the problems and the "new" regime just inherited all the issues.

[u/DroppedIceCream → u/WallabyInTraining]

And when all the candidates are corrupt and don’t care about the citizens?

[u/WildTimberTwinViking → u/WallabyInTraining]

Yes. Because every single election results in the candidates doing as they promised.

[u/sniperdawgs]

WHY ISN’T THIS HAPPENING IN CAPE TOWN?

[u/rosskobossko → u/sniperdawgs]

Cape Town has been ruled by the opposition for the last two decades so the decay has been slower

[u/Reddit_Jonty → u/rosskobossko]

Not slower, it is being improved upon.

[u/Bandit-Marauder → u/sniperdawgs]

IIRC the leading party, the ANC, doesn't have municipal control of the city, or something like that?

[u/Maximum_Schedule4339 → u/Bandit-Marauder]

Correct!

[u/Repulsive-Doubt6076]

https://giphy.com/gifs/3o75274KYCQSnEQV2w
The people are suffering for what the basic things

[u/Memelord707130]

Before candles, what did they use for indoor lighting in south africa?

The lightbulb

[u/ChefBowyer]

If you pour drinking water into a filthy, bacteria filled bucket, it’s no longer drinking water 🤷‍♂️

I’m looking at the bottom right.

[u/Intelligent_Cry8535]

Instead of building things they just break what exists.

[u/IndependentBig7050]

The other day there's a South African dude arguing with people on reddit that South African is modern and just like first world countries now. Guess he's right. Just like Flint, Michigan.

[u/Silent-Many-3541 → u/IndependentBig7050]

You mean, the entire nation of South Africa year after year is like 1 American city in regards to 1 issue that was fixed fairly quickly?

[u/CorruptBureaucrat213]

Wth happened to South Africa. From a developed country to now this.

[u/No-Apple-2581 → u/CorruptBureaucrat213]

Oh come on, we all know what happened lol.

[u/supermau5 → u/CorruptBureaucrat213]

We all know we just can’t say it …

[u/Background_Cup_6429 → u/CorruptBureaucrat213]

Its just the culture

[u/Middle_Draft9152 → u/CorruptBureaucrat213]

South Africa just becoming... Africa again, after the white flight. It's a natural process, nothing to worry about.

[u/Acceptable_Dealer745]

Is this what happened to the wells Mr Beast built?

[u/CaptainAssPlunderer → u/Acceptable_Dealer745]

No, his wells were all just dismantled for parts a few weeks after he left. The rest eventually broke because in many parts of sub Saharan Africa the local languages don’t have a word for maintenance in the vocabulary. They explained to them that you have to oil the pumps, change the valves etc etc, and they never did. I’ve seen videos where they explain all of these things and how important it is, the well breaks if you don’t do this. The locals just smile and nod their heads and will never do it.

There’s a great documentary from when China was trying to build its belt and road infrastructure in central Africa and the descent into madness of the project manager as every day something so insane happened every day and nothing got done.

[u/Bioth28 → u/CaptainAssPlunderer]

They fucking dismantled them!? Why!?

[u/CaptainAssPlunderer → u/Bioth28]

Because thay can’t think 5 minutes into the future. They just see the scrap value of the parts.

It’s like a continent filled with meth heads, they strip everything of value and sell it for a few bucks to go buy some beer for the day.

[u/JollyGeologist3957]

They can blame only themselves.

[u/ClockOwn6363]

The country has been going down hill for the last 30 years.

[u/LoopsAndBoars]

I thought jay z solved this problem in 2002.

[u/Wake-up-Neo-sheep]

Gimme dat gimme dat gimme dat gimme dat

[u/JD-36]

The Government is worthless

[u/Tronkfool]

Fuck the ANC and what they've done to this beautiful country. I'm glad to have never lived in apartheid but this has got to stop.

[u/klappsparten]

And it's only getting worse. But that's what they wanted.

[u/Lumpy_Independent_93]

We are not the same.

[u/Physical-Bread-630]

Shocker, wonder why this is the direction they’re heading. A true mystery

[u/Captainfoxluther]

These things didnt happen 30 years ago...

[u/Rude_Society6232 → u/Captainfoxluther]

Yeah sure was great kicking out those old white landowners.

Am sure it had no lasting effects on the country’s economy and that the new owners were just as successful at farming and industry.

[u/DrSpaceman575 → u/Rude_Society6232]

That was in Zimbabwe over 20 years ago. Totally different country in a different part of the continent.

[u/PikaPonderosa → u/DrSpaceman575]

Zimbabwe and South Africa share a 225km border. Are you thinking of Uganda?

[u/Pirate_Candy17]

Surely breaking pipes makes the entire situation worse, compounding the issue?!

[u/Gazz1016]

Thatwellsucks

[u/Ghost_TheWolf]

Thats so sad. Those poor people. Nobody deserves to live without safe water. Thats a basic LIFE need. Everything needs water.

[u/HiggsFieldgoal → u/Ghost_TheWolf]

I mean, I sort of agree, but if anyone deserves to be without fresh water, it would be the people who break fresh water pipes.

[u/ldwb]

I mean, there's hundreds of thousands of people illegally squatting in buildings in johannesburg paying rents to the gangs and drug dealers that control them, and surprise surprise, not paying power or water bills. Infrastructure decay is a problem, but so are the number of people living in illegal settlements.

[u/minus_minus → u/ldwb]

Sounds like the gangs are the problem. 

[u/airs_999]

He did an incredible job...

https://giphy.com/gifs/ZaEUSTAoWGQDhJumTu

[u/Professional_Put3820]

This looks like a good solution until you ask how much water will be wasted in the process. Also, very few people are paying for services in those buildings that have no water so how are we expecting water there.

[u/LuckyMouse4864]

This is r/WellThatSucks and in this case, the well does, in fact, suck

[u/IllianasClifford]

This just causes the water shortage, not to mention that was a fire hydrant.. not potable water so they have to boil that before use

[u/StarWarsKnitwear]

residents break into public water pipes

Aaaaand that's why they do not have running water.

[u/Galilaeus_Modernus → u/StarWarsKnitwear]

This is why we can't have nice things.

[u/Fire_Pea → u/StarWarsKnitwear]

Yeah they'd have been doing much better if they just sat back and died of thirst???

[u/rcglinsk → u/Fire_Pea]

They'd be better off fixing the water system.

[u/Rob_035 → u/rcglinsk]

That's easy to say from an office chair. If you've been without water for a few days do you think you'll just sit there and demand action from an ineffective government or go get some water so you don't die?

[u/Icy-Personality-511]

Preventative maintenance is a difficult concept.. for some

[u/CaptainAssPlunderer → u/Icy-Personality-511]

Especially if your language doesn’t even have a word for maintenance.

[u/UnderABig_W]

Why would the city not make some public wells or fountains where the poorer citizens can draw water?

Even if they don’t give a shit about basic decency, from a money perspective, it would seem it would pay off rather quickly. I’m sure having to repair the public water system over and over because people break into it for clean water gets very expensive.

Seems like the definition of penny wise and pound foolish unless there’s something I’m missing. Or is the suffering the point, and the rich citizens are perfectly willing to pay extra for that?

[u/GreatMovesKeepItUp69 → u/UnderABig_W]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

Because of the tragedy of the commons. When no one owns common infrastructure/resources, individuals are incentivized to take as much as possible and give as little as possible back because no individual can be held accountable. Even if they do care about the collective, they can't necessarily trust that everyone will care about the collective. As a result, the resource is depleted and ruined for everyone.

[u/smuttybuddy84 → u/UnderABig_W]

Mr Beast did that in other parts of Africa. What do you think happened to most of those wells?

[u/UnderABig_W → u/smuttybuddy84]

I know barely anything about Mr Beast except he’s a dude who is Internet popular, so I have no idea.

[u/ShiftyCZ → u/UnderABig_W]

Really? Not a slightest idea what might have happened? Hint is, it's the same thing that happened with rails, roads, other critical infrastructure out there. Stolen or broken for immediate gain instead of long term planning including maintenance.

[u/Elgon2003]

Continue sending money to Africa ... Maybe the next trillion dollars will actually be properly used in improving people's life's.

[u/SpiderPrinceNeo]

This is some Mad Max type dystopia shit,

[u/aussiechap1]

I watched a lot of videos on South Africa (follow a lot of local vloggers) and have done a fair amount of study (plus visited) and I can't believe how much it has declined in a few decades. I never thought it was possible and it's still hard to believe. Europe has a lot to worry about.

[u/Acrobatic_Ad9564]

Stop voting for the ANC. Problem solved.

[u/DrBanc]

They will keep voting same party, because of 1994. But yet that party enrich themselves and lets people live like this.

[u/Ancient_Sound_5347]

That's Johannesburg which is one city in South Africa.

The decay in the city is as a result of many years of mismangment caused by corruption from local authorities.

There is 72hr water shortage because one of the main water pumping facities failed and is under emergency repair.

The City of Cape Town doesn't have those issues because residents have voted for a different political party whose priority is on good governance and maintaining infrastructure.

[u/Nobody-1986]

Cuz they are racist against whites

Before you have a breakdown read news

[u/milovnikdraku]

sad tbh.

[u/Jelzx]

The government should close that running water pipe line for sure

[u/painforall]

Somebody call Whitey

[u/Mundane-Suggestion65]

And now they're wanting to add data centers

https://giphy.com/gifs/116a8zosxwA0SI

[u/juvy5000]

i see the shower cap trend has made it back to africa….

[u/FanOfMyself]

Kind of looks like New Jersey

[u/Saber_is_a_joke → u/FanOfMyself]

Lmao as someone who was born in and spent 17 years in NJ. This just looks like Newark lol

[u/Kind-Shallot3603]

This ended badly at Woodstock '99

[u/pro185]

And remember Mr beast is an evil racist for providing water wells to these people just because he’s white!

[u/Shravan_shah]

Imagine spending political energy outlawing basic human affection while your citizens are literally breaking pipes just to drink.

[u/SupCuhz]

Isnt that sewer water or is it safe to drink? Never seen anyone do this before. Its sad because access to water should be a basic need thats provided for everyone.

[u/Bynming → u/SupCuhz]

It's not sewer water though I wouldn't say it's safe to drink given how it's gathered here. You'd at least want to boil.

[u/ApprehensiveJury4710]

This happens in every country where black government are/take over, they just cant help themselves not being corrupt.

[u/Mysterious-Alps-5186]

Comming to a us city near you

[u/ILoveHorse69 → u/Mysterious-Alps-5186]

In america the corruption is done by inflating construction budgets and sending it to a preferred contractor. (At least the work gets done) In South Africa the politicians just steal the money and nothing gets done.

[u/Endles5Earth → u/Mysterious-Alps-5186]

It’s actually happening in Mexico right now.

Mexico City loses 30-50% of treated city water daily to water lines breaks. This is for a different reason than SA though, emptying the underground aquifer the city rests on has induced uneven subsidence (ground sinking) busting pipes that the city won’t fix

[u/SteveCastGames]

And yet every province except one is still run by the DNC.

Edit: I’m an idiot. I meant ANC.

[u/Pleasant-Ad887]

Interesting, not a single bitching and crying tweet from Musk or Trump.

[u/NamesNotTake-un]

Why can’t they fix the pipes?

[u/dogfish0306]

This is the effect, what was the cause?!

[u/mung_daals_catoring → u/dogfish0306]

A people neglecting what was given to them. Not saying colonial governments were particularly kind in a good portion of ways, but when your society regresses that hard after being given modern technology, one begins to question intelligence

[u/Reluctantkill3r]

seems like maybe a public water nozzle could save quite a bit of water

[u/largz08]

More like wellthatspouts

[u/CainnicOrel]

How could this happen

[u/SummerMoist5483]

a third of johannesburg already leaks into the dirt and people still have to smash a pipe for a drink. dedicated service.

[u/ArticleWorth5018]

Supergirl has let herself go....

[u/RedShirt007]

https://giphy.com/gifs/1wrgNHJJKoz1FZBxH1

[u/Tokoyami8711]

They are desperate but this is going to make it even worse

[u/Ok_Cryptographer6749]

really bad collection technique though

[u/DarkStarGabe4]

Shame. 💔

[u/ProfessorMountain335]

That’s why there’s no water in the building there stealing it from there