Panic over dry Jozi taps

Will all of Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni have water by this morning? "Yes, but it depends."

This was the official response yesterday after an interruption to power at pump stations left at least 40% of Johannesburg households temporarily without water - though some areas had not had water for five days.

South Hills, Risana, Linmeyer, Sophiatown and Westdene still had no water yesterday .

Though supply was restored to Martindale, Westbury, Newlands, Montclair, Coronationville, Greenside, Emmarentia and parts of Braamfontein, it was pumped in at low pressure.

In Ekurhuleni, affected areas included parts of Bedfordview, Primrose, Marlands, Sunnyridge, Solheim, Synhurst, Gerdview, Fishershill, Homestead and small parts of Witfield, Dawnview, Simmerfield and Wychwood.

Johannesburg Water managing director Lungile Dlamini said "water will be restored by morning".

Rand Water supplies Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni relies on City Power to supply electricity to its pump stations.

Rand Water officials said that increased demand as temperatures rose earlier this month put a strain on supplying water.

They claimed the demand led to power outages at the booster pump station in Eikenhof, which sends water to the western parts of Johannesburg and Mogale City.

Sipho Mosai, chief operating officer at Rand Water, said: "We have never had a situation where our whole supply system had power failures at the same time."

Water tankers have been sent to the affected areas.

The water supply could continue to be under threat as City Power, which supplies power to Rand Water, said its back-up transformer wa s faulty.

City Power's director of operations Louis Pieterse said a standby transformer will only become operational in the next 14 days.

If the existing transformer fails, more water cuts will be inevitable.

Said Pieterse: "But the chances of that transformer failing is nil ."

Dr Anthony Turton, of the SA Water Stewardship Council Trust, said: "The fact that there are problems at pump stations means that there is still inadequate maintenance of infrastructure.

"Over the last decade, people with skills have been leaving. Skilled people have been replaced by unskilled party faithfuls."