Methodology

How this site works.

Every number is sourced. Every pin is verifiable. Our verification rules are boring on purpose — they make hoaxes hard and evidence strong.

Verification tiers

Unverified — 1 report: submitted, awaiting corroboration or moderator review.
Corroborated: 3+ unique devices within 1 km and 12 h.
Verified: auto-matched to an official Johannesburg Water / Rand Water notice, or moderator-verified.

Decay & freshness (the Waze model)

Reports fade at 24 h without a re-confirmation and auto-archive at 48 h. Any "Still out 👍" from another device resets the clock. Two "Water is back 💧" votes from distinct devices mark the outage restored.

Baseline anomaly (Downdetector model)

Suburb status only turns red when current report volume exceeds a rolling baseline — so a single grumpy report doesn't panic the whole page, and a manufactured flood is visible against history.

The accountability counter

R88.78 per second = R2.8 billion per year — the Auditor-General's water losses figure for FY2024/25. This is the conservative number.

Two measures, not one. "Water losses" (32.94 %) and "non-revenue water" (~44.8–48.2 %) are different things — the first is physical loss valued at AG-audited cost; the second is the utility's billing shortfall. We display the conservative AG number as the live counter and quote NRW separately as context.

Sources — the numbers on this site

R10.3 bn / 4 yrs — AG Consolidated MFMA report, June 2026 (agsa.co.za).
R2.8 bn = 32.94 % water losses FY24/25 — AG water sector audit.
44.8–48.2 % non-revenue water — Treasury / AGSA briefing to Parliament, Wits.
33,436 bursts/leaks FY24/25 — AG audit.
R650m+ tanker spend over 5 years — Daily Maverick, June 2026.
43 of 129 reservoirs leaking — Daily Maverick, May 2026.
~200 years to renew the network at current pace — The Citizen / NPR reporting.

Moderation & consent

All Wall of Thirst photos are human-moderated before publication and faces / plates are blurred by default. Stories that name individuals, or make unverifiable accusations, are rejected. Anyone can request takedown at /takedown.

Changelog

2026-07-12 — Site launched. Counter anchor: 1 Jul 2025.