'Water by Christmas' in areas shut off for maintenance: City of Joburg

The City of Johannesburg says it's working around the clock to ensure that all the areas affected by Rand Water's recent maintenance have enough water before Christmas.

Taps went dry in Johannesburg from Friday when Rand Water started maintenance work at the Eikenhof and Zwartkoppies pump stations. This was to correct historical defects and to increase the flexibility and availability of the Eikenhof engine rooms.

Maintenance remained on track and was concluded on Monday as scheduled. Johannesburg Water said pumping had started and low-lying areas would recover first.

The Eikenhof pump station feeds systems including Soweto, Roodepoort and Randburg, Commando (Brixton, Crosby and Hurst Hill), Lenasia and parts of Johannesburg central including Eagles Nest, Crown Gardens, Aeroton and Alan Manor reservoirs.

Zwartkoppies supplies Johannesburg Water systems that include Parktown, Berea, Forest Hill, Naturena as well as the Hector Norris pump station which supplies the Johannesburg CBD. 

Joburg mayor dada Morero on Wednesday visited some of the reservoirs and towers affected by the three-day maintenance.

These were the Honeydew reservoir and tower and the Linden 1 & 2 systems.

Speaking on the latter, Morero said: “All we're waiting for is for the reservoirs to start filling up so we are able to provide residents with water. Of course there are areas that still don't have water, especially this area [Linden] because it's supplied by this reservoir, which will be the last to be filled from Rand Water itself.

“We think we're doing well and we want to thank all our residents for allowing this maintenance programme to go on because it'll contribute in the long-term to sustainability of water supply in Joburg,” he said.

The mayor said that while the 25 megalitre (ML) reservoir was hovering around 30% full as of Wednesday morning, it was expected to pick up through the day and over the next few days. He also assured residents that they could expect a stable supply well in time for Christmas.

“It's picking up and maybe by later today [Wednesday] it'll be at about 40% and then maybe in the next two days we'll get to over 60%. So it's showing that it's filling up but remember, it's not like electricity [where] you just switch off and on,” he said. “We're working around the clock to ensure that by the weekend, as we approach Christmas, all the areas have supply,” he said.

Other systems making a recovery include Commando, Eagle Nest, Randburg, Waterfall, Witpoortjie and Soweto.

Providing detailed updates on their recovery was Joburg Water MD Ntshavheni Mukwevho.

He said Zwartkoppies was doing “very well in terms of recovery” as most of the areas it supplies are receiving water.

“Of course, within that area there are small pockets, especially the high-lying areas, that are still struggling and the reason is that when the system recovers, it starts at the low-lying areas.”

Eikenhof's recovery process had started on Tuesday, Mukwevho said, and systems such as Soweto were experiencing “no major challenges”. In Crown Gardens, the entity had “opened the reservoir outlet at 50% as part of the recovery process”.

Turning to Randburg and Roodepoort, the city said there had been “major progress” made since Tuesday. Only the likes of Linden 1 & 2 remained problematic.

“The system we are still going to monitor closely within Eikenhof is Commando, which we've started supplying from Brixton. Hurst Hill 2 was opened in the morning but because of the nature of the system, we have to carry on monitoring for the next few days simply to allow it to build up,” he said.

He addressed a letter to ward 84 residents on the water issue on Wednesday.

“We have been informed that Johannesburg Water will no longer share reservoir levels with us. No reason has been provided for this decision, and we have escalated the matter to senior management,” councillor Kyle Jacobs told residents.

Addressing this, Mukwevho confirmed that this was true and said this was done to avoid a “misinterpretation” of information shared with councillors.

Another contentious issue the city tackled was that of water tankers — with the mayor indicating the city's intention to increase the number of trucks from the current 75 availed for affected areas. Additionally, the city would provide escorts from Joburg metro police to these trucks to address safety issues.

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