Africa-Press – South-Africa. Johannesburg Water has reminded residents that the water infrastructure will take 14 days to recover fully after last week’s outage.
By now, residents in the metropolis are well aware of the Rand Water outage, which has affected most of the city.
The major maintenance project will ensure more water can be delivered more effectively in the future.
Some areas in Johannesburg, especially those under the Commando system, which supplies the Hursthill, Brixton, and Crosby areas, only received water on Sunday because of an air pocket in the system.
The system is supplied by the Eikenhof Booster Station which took the majority of the downtime with 58 hours in total and an approximate 14-day recovery.
Rand Water supplies bulk water to municipalities, and Joburg Water warned residents that those areas fed by Eikenhof, especially in Randburg and Roodepoort, would take the longest to recover.
Ward 87 councillor Bridget Steer said, “All things considering [the outage] went well.”
Ward 87 includes Greenside, Melville, Auckland Park, Richmond, Brixton, Parkview, Westcliff, Forest Town and Parktown West.
These areas are notorious for being without water for days when there is a power outage or any other issue at Rand Water.
Parts of the ward had gone without water for up to six days.
On Sunday, an airlock, essentially an air bubble, was discovered in the system, affecting the bulk supply line to Hursthill reservoir.
Rand Water had to perform an emergency shutdown to fix the issue.
Steer said Hursthill still had a “long way to go” before recovering fully, but she said residents in the ward “know the drill” after frequent outages.
“Residents know how to use water sparingly, we shower (instead of bath) and capture the water to use in the cistern.
Steer said the City’s disaster management plan was lacking in terms of significant water outages.
However, she added that a budget had just been passed for a major upgrade to the Commando system which would allow for a 26 megalitre reservoir to be completed by February 2025.
“This will be enough water to mitigate water outages for up to two days.”
Outages are common in this area because of the high population and the elevation of the area.
On Monday, Johannesburg Water said most of its systems were steadily recovering.
“However, high-lying areas are still experiencing low water pressure. The entity continues to supply water tankers to critical areas.
“Although work has been completed, Johannesburg Water customers are reminded that full recovery will take five to 14 days. Customers in higher-lying areas will experience the outage for a longer period as the network gradually recovers.
“Customers who have regained supply are urged to use water sparingly, only for drinking and cooking, and hygiene purposes. Please refrain from watering your gardens, filling up swimming pools, and using hose pipes to wash cars.”
The entity said that load shedding continued to affect recovery times.
“This is due to the fact that the system is currently in recovery mode, so any load shedding would affect recovery times as pumping is interrupted during power outages.”
How the system is recovering:
Soweto
The Orlando reservoir levels have improved, and capacity has increased to 16%. Flows are back to normal.
The Meadowlands and Braamfischerville reservoir zones are struggling and technical teams are flushing the infrastructure in the area to get rid of airlocks in the system.
Randburg and Roodepoort
Most of the reservoirs and towers are recovering.
The Blairgowrie reservoir levels have increased and are sitting at 30% capacity. The Linden 1 reservoir is at 6%, while the Linden 1 tower has improved and is at 45%. The areas supplied by these three systems are still struggling with water.
“These three systems are still struggling because they are situated at a higher altitude in the system. Furthermore, they are fed by Rand Water’s Waterval reservoir, so, as the Waterval reservoir gains capacity, so will these systems,” Joburg Water stated.
Commando system (Brixton, Hursthill, Crosby)
Supply at the Commando meter continues to recover. At the Crosby reservoir, supply is still on recovery and inflows are increasing. The Brixton reservoir outlet is open at 100% and the tower is operating normally.
The Hursthill 1 reservoir is sitting at 13% with low inflows, while the Hursthill 2 reservoir has a capacity of 15% and inflows are also low. Hursthill 2 reservoir should be able to supply high-lying areas of that zone.
Johannesburg South and CBD
Parktown 2 reservoir is sitting at 41%, while the Berea reservoir is at 15% and continues to be on an upward path. The Crown Gardens reservoir outlet is opened at 100% and has 70% capacity.
“Pumping at the Crown Gardens towers took place overnight and supply in this system should be back to normal. However, high-lying areas are still struggling with low pressure to no water.”
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