Joburg technicians work in treacherous conditions to fix water burst

Technicians from Joburg Water are braving treacherous conditions on Wednesday to restore water to the northern suburbs in the city's biggest and most complex water repair operation.

Workers toiled 35 meters underground to fix a 1.6 meter diameter pipe‚ which takes water from Rand Water to the City of Joburg reservoirs.

TimesLIVE visited the Linbro Park site in Alexandra‚ where the work is taking place. MMC of environment and infrastructure services in the City of Johannesburg‚ Nico de Jager‚ was already on site to see the work being done.

"The problem here is that a landfill site was developed above our infrastructure. It was not supposed to be there. The acids that come from the landfill site erode the metal. That is why we have a problem here. We just need to be careful how we do the work here. There are layers and layers of old rubbish‚" De Jager said.

"The burst happened underneath the pipe. What made it more difficult is that there is a concrete chamber over the pipe. It was difficult to cut through it to get to the pipe. The fixing of the burst pipe is happening from the inside.

"This is the biggest job that has ever been undertaken by Joburg Water. Our main concern is the people who are working here. We have to be careful because you can have people buried here alive. The land is unstable and there is groundwater coming out of the walls of the trench.

"We are hoping that this job will be done by 3pm today. But the pressure on the pipe is 22 bars. This means the pressure is equivalent to 22 tyres in your cars. If you were to hold this pipe into the air‚ the water would shoot up to 220 meters into the sky."

The work began on Friday after a leak was discovered and water pressure began to drop in the area. Technicians went on site to fix the leakage on a 600mm pipe‚ which runs parallel to the big pipe. The small water pipe supplies water in the neighbourhood. It was only when they were fixing the small pipe that they discovered the leak on the big one.

The small pipe had eight leakages that were quickly fixed. But by then water had covered the whole area. Excavation had to be done to allow the gases from the landfill site to escape the soil.

A path was created to get the water out of the big hole that had been dug. The city technicians have been working around the clock to ensure that water is restored.

Areas affected include Sandton‚ Bryanston‚ Woodmead‚ Morningside and Alexandra. Water tankers have been made available to the affected areas.

When the pipe is fixed‚ the system will be flushed to make sure it is clean and to prevent the contamination of water. Water supply is expected to be restored by tomorrow.