Parts of Randburg still dry as crooks try to sell city water to residents

Johannesburg Water says its team is experiencing problems as it starts repairs in parts of Randburg, due to the huge volume of water that is still coming out of the pipelines people must work on. 

The water utility gave an update on Wednesday regarding the repairs to the 600mm steel pipe in Ferndale, which has left several areas in Randburg without water.

However, the utility said though the team is working to resolve the problem, it is not possible to begin repairs until the water in the pipelines has drained completely.

According to Joburg Water on Wednesday morning, team members were walking along the pipes  and manually shutting off water.

The affected areas include parts of Winsor, Ferndale, Strjidom Park, Kensington B, parts of Randburg, parts of Bryanston, Moret, parts of Blairgowrie and Bordeaux.

“There is now no estimated time for completion. Further details will be provided as they become available. Johannesburg Water will continue to provide an alternative water supply,” it said.

Some opportunistic people have been quick to exploit the situation and have been selling water taken from the city's tankers to desperate residents. 

Ward 102 councillor Lucinda Harman said, “Yesterday I alerted Joburg Water about this. The problem started at Bram Fischer and Randburg, where I was told that people were prevented from getting water from the water trucks and money was being demanded from them. Randburg taxi rank was one place that came up, and the other places were garages,” she said.

Harman said there was insufficient information on who was charging people for the water.

“I still don't know who has been charging the money. All I got was an alert yesterday.”

Harman said they didn't know how much was being demanded for the water. She said the trucks have since been redirected to places where people were not being forced to pay.

“Vulnerable people were being preyed on,” she said.

In a separate notice, Joburg Water warned residents about further water outages. 

The water utility said Ferndale extensions 6, 15 and 20 would be affected by a planned maintenance from next Tuesday.

According to Johannesburg Water, there will not be any water for 10 hours from 8am to 6pm as they tie in the new pipe.

It said region C, covering Wilgeheuwel, will also have planned maintenance on September 3 from 8am to 4pm and there will be no water in that eight hours as they tie in Nepal Pune. 

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