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Joburg Residents Urged to Stock Up on Water Ahead of Scheduled Water Cuts This Week
Joburg residents should brace themselves — and start filling buckets of water — ahead of scheduled Joburg water cuts during a maintenance shutdown that will result in water cuts throughout the city this week. According to the Daily Maverick, Johannesburg Water has announced that this shutdown is necessary to complete maintenance and upgrade requirements at Rand Water’s Eikenhof pump station, which supplies water to Johannesburg Water reservoirs. As a result, customers relying on those systems — as well as areas receiving direct water supply from Rand Water — will have no water supply during the shutdown, which will take place from next week Tuesday night (7 pm) to Friday morning (5 am), (11 – 14 July), and possibly a few days after as the system restores itself. The Rand Water Daleside pump station will also be impacted during the shutdown, as well as Johannesburg Water’s Yeoville reservoir.
Initially scheduled for 20 to 22 June, Johannesburg Water postponed the planned shutdown to relieve areas facing water supply challenges. Full recovery of the systems can likely take between five and 14 days once the supply is fully restored on Friday morning. As Logan Munsamy, the technical director of Johannesburg Water, highlighted, water systems differ from electricity as they rely on complex pipelines, and it can take days or even weeks for reservoirs to recover storage levels.
Also read: Rand Water Shutdown Extended – Johannesburg Water Provides Update
The scheduled shutdown aims to complete a tie-in between the A19 and B14 pipelines with a new pipeline, install isolation valves, and conduct system upgrades at Rand Water’s Eikenhof pump station. Johannesburg Water emphasises that shutting down a pump station is necessary to provide a window period for maintenance interventions that it cannot execute while the plant is operational. The maintenance shutdown aims to upgrade the infrastructure, enhance its reliability, and ensure optimal functioning, as reliability is compromised without regular maintenance, leading to unplanned shutdowns.
Professor Anthony Turton, a water resource management specialist, explains the need for shutdowns for maintenance and upgrades due to the extensive pipeline networks and high water pressure. Turton notes that Johannesburg Water’s reduced storage capacity per capita has diminished its buffering ability, exacerbating customer impact.
Also read: Planned 44-Hour Water Outage to Affect Johannesburg
To prepare for the shutdown, Johannesburg Water advises customers to start storing water at least 48 hours before or earlier to sustain capacity within the affected infrastructure. This proactive measure will reduce the impact on reservoirs and towers and contribute to a faster recovery after the shutdown. However, customers are requested not to store water the day before the shutdown, as some reservoirs will already be closed to retain supply-side capacity.
Johannesburg Water assures customers hospitals, clinics, schools, municipal offices, police stations, and shopping centres will arrange alternative water supplies to mitigate the impact of the water cuts.
Check if the affected reservoirs supply your suburb, towers, and direct feeds.
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Picture: Facebook / Johannesburg Water
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