Joburg residents fume as taps run dry during maintenance work

As many Johannesburg suburbs feel the pinch during Rand Water’s extensive maintenance programme, criticism has been levelled against Johannesburg Water and Rand Water for their poor communication. 

Rand Water has been implementing its extensive June 22 to July 29 maintenance plan across several systems, including Johannesburg Water.

The Zwartkopjes and Eikenhof pump stations and Daleside booster station were the first systems affected, with all three experiencing reduced water flow from June 24.

Zwartkopjes feeds the Crown Gardens reservoir and tower and Eagles Nest reservoir, while Daleside feeds the Orange Farm, Ennerdale and Lawley reservoirs.

Eikenhof has seen reduced flow since June 24. It feeds Soweto, Randburg/Roodepoort, Commando, Lenasia and parts of Johannesburg central, including the Eagles Nest, Crown Gardens, Aeroton and Alan Manor reservoirs. It will be affected until July 13.

Joburg Water on Thursday confirmed work was complete at Zwartkopjes and that power had been restored at the station after an outage on Wednesday.

“Pumping operations are running at full capacity, reaching 100%. Some systems supplied by Zwartkopjes are steadily recovering but Crown Gardens and Eagles Nest are struggling.”

Regarding Eikenhof, the entity said: “Work is under way, and the station is operating at 67% pumping capacity. Most of the Johannesburg Water systems supplied by Eikenhof are critically low or empty.”

Eikenhof’s pumping capacity was expected to increase to 83% from Thursday evening until July 13.

TimesLIVE asked residents and leaders in some suburbs that receive water via Eikenhof about the effect of the water cuts.

Among them was Michael Thompson, who is on the board of Frederic Place Home for the Aged in Coronationville. He said while the area had been experiencing water issues for some time, the situation was worsened by the maintenance. The area is supplied by Hursthill 1 and 2 reservoirs, which are empty.

According to Thompson, the home had procured JoJo tanks to deal with the prolonged shortages but had to buy more during the current shortage.

The home paid a plumber to connect the tanks to pipelines linked to the bathroom and laundromat.

“We’ve had water problems for longer than six months in Coronationville. The only difference between then and now [with the maintenance] is that there’s no water at all,” he said.

“Coronationville has a lot of elderly residents. We’re a very old suburb and not many people can go to a street corner or recreation centre to fill and carry buckets.”

Thompson said they had water to last two days.

Ward 88 councillor Nicolene Jonker said taps had been dry in suburbs that received their supply from the Waterval tower. These included Emmarentia, Northcliff and Valeriedene.

“They’ve been dry since Tuesday afternoon. Emmarentia, which is fed by Hursthill 2, has also been fighting with me [over the water supply]. The reason for this and what upsets councillors is that in none of the communication have they said taps would run dry.

“They kept saying they’re pumping at 50% so the anger from residents is around that. I know Rand Water is saying there will be alternative water supply in the form of trucks, but residents feel they should’ve said there will be no water for a week, for example, rather than ‘don’t panic’ or ‘store water’.”

Jonker said there were water tankers roaming, but there was a “big fight” over the supply from them.

Ward 101 councillor Ralf Bittkau said the three Randburg suburbs in his ward, Northriding, Olivedale and Sharonlea, were the worst affected.

“They’ve had no water for three days, but because the reservoir is slowly filling again, we are looking at why this is happening. It might be airlocks because the pipes were empty. We’ve got tankers in the neighbourhood and it’s a matter of making sure we get the right communication from Joburg.

“That is always a problem. Joburg Water and Rand Water’s communication is sadly lacking,” he said.

Ward 99 councillor Nicole van Dyk provided an update on Thursday morning on the situation at Waterval tower. 

“Officials confirmed they have finished the work on the Waterval network and are going to be able to make use of both reservoirs, which is exciting news and explains why the maintenance had to be done,” she said.

She confirmed the increase in Eikenhof’s pumping from Thursday night, saying that should “help the systems recover”.

“They have said the systems are going to take time to recover and we will start seeing gradual improvements only by Saturday.”

TimesLIVE