Taps are running dry in Johannesburg, and the City's new mayor Dada Morero is eyeing a "water revolution" which would see every household equipped with a JoJo tank.

Johannesburg is in the grips of a fierce water crisis. Reservoir storage has declined from 52% to 38%, with bulk water supplier Rand Water recently imposing Stage 2 water shedding. This rationing, meant to replenish reservoir levels, cuts off 30% of the water on high-consuming customer meters. In the meantime, taps have already run dry in several suburbs across Johannesburg.

The water crisis comes at a particularly bad time for Johannesburg, which is also dealing with load shedding as a result of the overburdened electrical grid and ongoing political ructions which stripped Mpho Phalatse of her mayoral chain and saw Morero sworn in last week.

One of Morero's first orders of business as the new mayor of Johannesburg has been to address the worsening water crisis.

On Thursday, Morero visited water reservoirs and towers, addressing concerns about the City's overloaded infrastructure. During his tour, Morero told media in attendance of a community-led "water revolution" which would preserve the precious resource and minimise reliance on municipal supply.

"We must make a bold statement, and we must call on a water revolution in our communities," said Morero.

"And that involves communities having JoJo [tanks in] each and every house because that will help us to preserve the water for drinking and cooking, and we can use the rest of the rainwater for doing our washing, for [the] garden, and all other things including your car washes…"

Morero's ambitious plan to have every household in Johannesburg equipped with a JoJo tank would be a mammoth and expensive undertaking.

The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality had a total of 1.68 million households in 2018, according to the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta).

JoJo water storage tanks come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colours, ranging from 20 litres up to 20,000 litres. JoJo's 750-litre Slimline water tank, described as being "perfect for city dwellers", is the most affordable home-use storage reservoir in its class, starting from R2,000.

If every household in Johannesburg needed to be equipped with a JoJo tank, as envisioned by Mayor Morero, and even using the most affordable option, it would cost at least R3.36 billion. That's a conservative estimate for the JoJo tanks themselves and doesn't account for delivery or set-up.

While Morero mulls the "water revolution", parched Johannesburg residents have the added comfortability of dealing with hot and dry conditions, with a heatwave warning issued by the South African Weather Service (SAWS).