Ntombi Nkosi & Lehlohonolo Mashigo
Johannesburg Water has announced that its systems are gradually recovering as repair work by Rand Water work is completed.
In a statement, it said repair work conducted during the planned Rand Water shutdown - which started on Tuesday (July 11) at 7pm and was due to end this morning (Friday) at 5 - was complete.
Johannesburg Water said residents in some areas had confirmed that water was gradually returning to their systems, particularly in Rosebank, Dunkeld West, Oakdene, Kenilworth, and parts of Soweto.
Spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala said as this was one of the biggest planned maintenance shutdowns, it had experienced challenges, as expected of operations of this magnitude.
Shabalala said some of the major issues which impacted Johannesburg Water systems were the Zwartkopjes repairs, which were supposed to take 24 hours, but were only completed at 01:00 on Thursday, 13 July, as opposed to 19:00 on Wednesday, 12 July.
She said there was no continuous pumping of the 24% of water at the Eikenhof Booster Station that was supposed to take place throughout the shutdown. There was no pumping on Wednesday night, resulting in Soweto and Lenasia systems being critically low to empty. By Thursday, the Eikenhof system was empty.
And the entity did not get the 300 megalitres of extra water pumping into Johannesburg Water systems as promised by the bulk supplier.
“Although work has been completed, Johannesburg Water customers are reminded that full recovery will take five to 14 days. To give context to the recovery process, water is not like electricity. When power comes back after a power failure, one can hit a switch, and the light comes back almost immediately. Water, on the other hand, is supplied through a long series of pipelines. If a reservoir goes low or empty, as majority of them did during the shutdown, it sometimes takes days and even weeks to recover that storage,” Shabalala said.
She said the Commando system (Hursthill, Brixton, and Crosby), a historically problematic system, would take longer to improve.
Shabalala said as the recovery of systems takes place, Johannesburg Water would continue providing alternative water supply to areas that are still struggling, particularly in the Johannesburg CBD as well as hospitals and clinics.
Shabalala said technical teams would reroute water tankers from areas showing improvement to those that are not receiving water.
Customers are urged to use water sparingly, only for drinking and cooking, and hygiene purposes.
Meawhile, the Department of Water and Sanitation has encouraged South Africans to continue using water wisely and sparingly despite water levels in listed dams and water management areas looking stable.
The department also reminded the public that water conservation was key to water supply security, as South Africa was a water-scarce country.
The department said the weekly state of reservoirs report of July 10 showed that most dams listed from the Lowveld recorded had unchanged water levels, with a few recording some improvements.
“Ohrigstad and Nooitgedacht are the only listed dams that recorded some declines in water levels, dropping from 91.2% to 89.9% and 97.8% to 97.4% respectively.”
Listed dams that remained unchanged in the Lowveld include Blyderivierpoort Dam at 100.3%, Buffelskloof at 100.2%, Longmere at 100.2%, Kwena at 100.2%, Da Gama at 100.3% and Inyaka at 100.1%.
Lowveld dams that recorded improvements in water levels include Driekoppies Dam, increasing from 99.6% to 99.8%, Klipkopjes increasing from 99.6% to 99.8%, Witklip increasing from 100.2% to 100.3%, Primkop increasing from 100.0% to 100.2% and Vygeboom increasing from 100.3% to 100.4%,” said the department.
The department said Mpumalanga recorded a slight average drop in dam levels, from 98.1% to 98.0%.
In the Water Management Areas, the Olifants WMA dropped slightly from 90.0% to 89.8%, and the Inkomati-Usuthu WMA from 98.2% to 98.1%.
“In terms of water levels per district, Ehlanzeni remained unchanged at 99.8%, Gert Sibande dropped from 96.3% to 96.1% and Nkangala remained unchanged at 99.6%,” said the department.