Large parts of northern Joburg to be without water on Tuesday

Adding to the City of Johannesburg’s water woes on Tuesday was “a major shutdown” due to a burst 450mm line in Steyn City.

Johannesburg Water tweeted via ‏@JHBWater that a large part of the northern reaches of the city would be affected: Northriding‚ Craigavon‚ Maroeladal‚ Bloubosrand‚ Cedar Lakes‚ Cedar Creek‚ Witkoppen‚ JHB North‚ Kya Sand and Farmhall. These would be out for most of Tuesday as repairs would be carried out from 7am until 8pm‚ but warned that “water will be off for a longer period”.

Tankers would be dispatched to schools in the affected areas‚ the utility added.

It urged residents to “please spread the message to all your neighbours so that they prepare themselves before water is completely off in the areas”.

It had earlier reiterated to residents that “we have to continue saving water”‚ noting that “Vaal Dam levels have dropped down to 27% from 27.5%” from last Monday.

On Monday‚ TMG Digital reported that Johannesburg has been forced to cut water supplies to some suburbs as reservoirs failed to cope with demand from residents during a weekend heatwave.

The City of Joburg cut off the supply of water in parts of Soweto on Monday.

"The following areas will be without water until the system recovers sufficiently to restore supply‚ all of Diepkloof‚ Orlando East and parts of Orlando West‚" said Joburg Water.

The city is still under level two water restrictions but has struggled to reduce consumption. The Department of Water and Sanitation has imposed a 15% restriction on the use of water by municipalities due to ongoing drought and low dam levels.