Johannesburg - Rand Water on Tuesday said that it was in discussion with senior management at the Ekurhuleni Municipality in a bid to avoid issuing mixed messages around scheduled water pipe maintenance and unanticipated burst water pipes.
This as the bulk water supplier has currently shut down the B11 pipeline to install a 2 500mm Butterfly valve from Lethabo to Vereeniging pumping station.
Rand Water said it has asked Ekurhuleni to retract its statement about potential water shortages in parts of the City due to a planned shutdown.
The City of Ekurhuleni issued an advisory on social media warning residents to expect low pressure and even no water in some areas during Rand Water's 54-hour shutdown from Monday to Wednesday.
But the City did say that all its reservoirs were stable and all areas had water, adding that water tankers were on standby should a water shortage be experienced.
Eddi Singo, Rand Water executive manager, said that they were monitoring social media pages of all Gauteng municipalities to ensure that the messages are aligned to Rand Water's maintenance work.
Singo said that the work on the B11 pipeline shutdown remained on schedule and on target, and if Rand Water would issue an advisory timeously to residents if it expects to encounter any challenges.
"We are monitoring social media accounts of municipalities and we noticed that Ekurhuleni issued updates of certain areas that have been affected. Those areas should not have challenges at all. Our reservoirs supplying the Ekurhuleni Local Municipality are stable," Singo said.
"We have communicated with their director of water and sanitation and he has committed to retracting the statement. They said that the communication was issued in error and they will be retracting. Our reservoirs are fully capacitated. We also have not received reports from our municipal customers of interruptions to the service due to the work being done with the shutdown."
In a statement, Rand Water said that Emfuleni Local Municipality has granted by Eskom permission to execute a shutdown at its Sonlandpark substation, adding that this will have an impact on its Langerrand Reservoir.
"We are monitoring this situation very closely. The Rand Water 'War Room' that has been established to oversee the shutdown is continuously monitoring the network," it said.
Rand Water continued requests consumers to continue using water sparingly. The next update on the water supply interruption can be expected around 7pm.