In 2024, repeated water outages across Johannesburg sent residents carrying containers to queues at mobile tankers. The Associated Press recorded people waiting for the trucks day after day. In a metropolitan region of roughly six million, about 40 percent of supplied water was reported lost through leaks, theft and related failures.
What made these lines distinctive was that they appeared not beyond a water network, but inside a vast piped city. Water that should have arrived at a tap became a ration collected in sequence from a vehicle appearing at a particular place and time. The queue exposed the difference between possessing large infrastructure and being able to use it.
Source check: Associated Press reporting in 2024 directly records Johannesburg residents repeatedly queuing to collect water from tankers.