South Africa: How much free water is enough?
South Africa's High Court is poised to rule whether Johannesburg's decision to introduce a multimillion-dollar prepaid water system in the country's largest township, Soweto, southwest of the city, is in violation of the residents' right to free water.
The court has been asked to order the city to provide at least 50 litres of free water per person per day, double what many Soweto residents currently receive, and allow the option to keep using the old system still operated elsewhere in the city, in which unlimited water is available for a flat fee.
Five residents of Phiri, one of Soweto's poorest townships, brought the class-action suit. After the three-day hearing in early December, during which the legal representatives of the residents, the city of Johannesburg and the national department of water affairs and forestry argued the merits of their case, Justice Tsoka retired to consider the residents' application.
