Johannesburg residents have not only braced themselves for the bitterly cold snap that resulted in snowfall over many parts of the city this week, but are also preparing for a massive water outage planned to last until Friday.
While Rand Water has reminded Johannesburg Water customers of the 58-hour planned water shutdown from Tuesday night to Friday morning, the water outage may last a little longer in some areas as water will be “slowly” released after maintenance.
“It is estimated that full recovery of the systems may take approximately five days or longer after the supply has been fully restored,” Johannesburg Water said.
The utility said the maintenance project forms part of Rand Water’s maintenance strategy that is focused on proactive refurbishment and upgrading of its infrastructure to ensure future sustainability.
“Rand Water will implement a planned maintenance to tie-in two valves between the A19 and B14 Pipelines. The planned maintenance will be undertaken to replace multiple valves at the Vereeniging Water Treatment Plant, Eikenhof Booster Pumping Station and Zuikerbosch Water Treatment Plant,” Rand Water said in a statement.
During the shutdown, all direct feeds from Rand Water will be affected, impacting and not limited to Roodepoort, Central and Soweto and surrounding areas.
Rand Water said some residents within the Rustenburg Local Municipality (RLM), Mogale City Local Municipality (MCLM) and the Rand West Local Municipality (RWLM) would also experience intermittent water supply during the implementation of the project.
“We apologise for any inconvenience that may be caused by the implementation of this maintenance project. However, planned maintenance on Rand Water’s infrastructure is necessary to ensure future sustainable supply of water to our customers.”
Roaming water tankers are expected to be provided to the affected areas and alternative water supply will be arranged at hospitals, clinics, schools, municipal offices, police stations, and shopping centres, the water utility said.
The shutdown will take place from 7pm on Tuesday, 11 July until 5am on Friday, 14 July 2023.
The following Johannesburg Water infrastructure, including reservoirs, towers and direct feeds will be impacted:
Roodepoort/Randburg areas
• Boschkop reservoir
• Randpark Ridge reservoir
• Cosmo City reservoir
• Constantia tower and pump station
• Helderkruin Tower
• Helderkruin reservoir
• Corriemoor reservoir
• Fairland reservoir
• Waterval tower
• Quellerina tower
• Florida North tower and pump station
• Horison/ Finch tower
• Honeydew reservoir
• Honeydew tower
• Olivedale reservoir
• Blairgowrie reservoir
• Linden 1 reservoir
• Linden 1 tower
• Linden 2 reservoir
• Kensington B reservoir
• Kensington B tower
Central
• Aeroton reservoir
• Aeroton tower
• Berea reservoir
• Parktown 1 and 2 reservoir
• Brixton reservoir
• Brixton tower
• Crosby reservoir
• Hurstihill 1 and 2 reservoirs
• Northcliff reservoir
• Northcliff tower
• Crown Gardens reservoir
• Crown Gardens towers
• Foresthill tower
• Hector Norris pump station
• Yeoville 1, 2 and 3 reservoirs.
Ennerdale
• Orange Farm reservoir
• Ennerdale 1, 2 and 3 reservoirs
• Lawley reservoir.
Southdale
• Eagles Nest reservoir
• Kibler Park reservoir
• Alan Manor reservoir
• Glenvista reservoir.
Soweto areas
• Chiawelo reservoir
• Jabulani tower
• Zondi reservoir
• Zondi tower
• Bramfischer reservoir 1
• Doornkop reservoir
• Naturena reservoir
• Meadowlands 1 and 2 reservoirs
• Orlando East reservoir
• Diepkloof reservoir
• Power Park 1 and 2 reservoirs
• Jabulani reservoir