‘Chaos’ as Ekurhuleni, Tshwane residents battle water, power outages at the same time

Ekurhuleni residents have been warned to brace for continued water shortages as it will take the metro's systems “three to 15 days” to recover after the final phase of Rand Water's extensive maintenance programme.

Rand Water earlier this week confirmed the end of its month-long “proactive” maintenance programme, which affected the three Gauteng metros and the Madibeng local municipality in the North West.

The final phase, which started on July 26 and ended on July 30, affected the Mapleton and Palmiet systems, both of which feed Ekurhuleni. 

Rand Water acknowledged that while pumping at both had been affected to varying degrees, areas would “recover differently after the maintenance process due to different hydraulics designs of the systems”.

This has been of little comfort to distressed Daveyton residents, as they detailed the chaos caused by days-long water outages compounded by extensive power cuts.

These are caused by Eskom's load reduction schedule, implemented as a result of increased demand for power during winter and electricity theft.

For some, the issue flared up on Friday when water supply slowed to a trickle before drying up a day later.

“By the time we woke up on Saturday, there was no water at all. The municipality then sent water tankers, but they were small ones. Imagine supplying an entire area with such a small tanker, said resident Thabang Mmotong.

“There were long queues for water and others claimed that the water itself was unclean, so it was a disaster,” Mmotong said. Enterprising individuals apparently took advantage of the situation and offered to sell water to residents for around R50.

Adding to the situation was a power cut that kicked in on Saturday morning. While electricity was restored by the end of the day, just days later it hit a different part of the sprawling township and was only restored on Tuesday.

Another resident, Nosikhumbuzo Mcunu, detailed the impact the double issue had on daily life. 

“Children can't go to school, we can't go to work as a result of having no water since Friday and then electricity going on and off. It's been quite a challenge and [making things] worse is the hijacking of water tankers, which leaves us with no access to clean water,” she said.

Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Dlamini confirmed the water challenges were directly related to the maintenance programme. He was unable to comment on the power cuts as Daveyton is supplied directly by Eskom.

“Rand Water would've finished its work yesterday [Tuesday], but for the system to recover, it takes anything between three to 15 days. So people will still have no water until the system [fills up]. For now, areas like eTwatwa, Daveyton, Tsakane, kwaThema, Vosloorus, parts of Boksburg and so on still don't have water.

“Some areas are regaining water slowly but in the main, the issue of water is still a problem.”

While Dlamini confirmed that water tankers had been dispatched to distribute water to affected areas, he conceded that they “may never be enough” given how widespread the issue was.

While he was unable to comment on when the situation is expected to stabilise, he said low-lying areas would be the first to recover.

TimesLIVE approached Eskom for comment but they requested an extension to the deadline by a day. Their response will be added once received.

Meanwhile, Tshwane residents faced a similar situation at the weekend with taps running dry and a power outage in Pretoria East from Monday afternoon. 

The City had warned residents of the impact of the Rand Water maintenance which was scheduled to take place over 77 hours, starting from 3am on Friday morning. 

But by Tuesday, residents had been queuing with buckets, large water bottles and pots to collect as much water as possible from water tankers. 

Rehandre Landman, who lives in Pretoria East, thought his move back to the capital city from Boksburg would be a breeze as he and his wife had previously lived there. 

However, to their disappointment, they were met with “more calamity this time around in Pretoria East”, than any other place both in and out of the province, Landman said. 

“The power failures that we have experienced during this time have been worse than load-shedding. They come without a schedule and cause an unnecessary amount of damage.” 

In April, the Mooikloof substation caught fire, leaving residents in the dark for seven days, and resulting in residents having to discard groceries. 

“And if the stress of that is not enough, my wife and I moved here when she was six months pregnant. The recent water outage has caused great difficulty since hygiene is so important during pregnancy and we had to boil water so she can take a bath. 

“We had really hoped to have moved to a better city since the City of Tshwane boasts so much about how they are one of the best metros to live in. As such, we would have expected to see some innovative thinking in addressing service delivery issues so that residents are minimally affected. In my experience, this does not appear to be the case,” he told TimesLIVE Premium. 

According to the city's updates on social media, the outage experienced in Pretoria East in recent days was due to a fault at a substation caused by a contractor. Power was finally restored on Tuesday afternoon. 

Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the city experienced a prolonged period of taps running dry due to the Rand Water maintenance, but water supply has been restored to the majority of the areas. 

“The city is closely observing the reservoir levels and pumping will resume earnestly in areas that are still without water... The areas that are still without water will continue to be serviced by water tankers. The deployment of water trucks is being co-ordinated through the ward councillors,” Bokaba said.