Pretoria – Residents in areas in the south of Joburg have been without water for over 10 days and there is no indication when their taps will be flowing again.
Speaking to IOL on Wednesday, Zubair Patel, chairperson of the southern suburbs community forum, said low-lying areas are not severely affected as other areas because most of the time they have water even though the pressure is low.
“The area is big and we are affected differently, sometimes the water will come back the entire area but with low pressure, but just when the pressure gets strong, it gets disconnected again. This is really frustrating,” he said.
Patel said they were recently in a meeting with Joburg water where it was explained to them that the reasons for the low water supply, is that the City is getting insufficient water supply from Rand Water.
“Due to the insufficient supply of water, the system is unable to provide enough water to filter through to all the affected streets.
“Currently all the affected streets are supplied via the reservoirs and not the towers.
“It is clear from the meeting that Joburg Water can't assist us. It seems that our problem is with Rand Water and not Joburg water,” he said.
Patel added that Rand Water and Joburg water will be meeting on Friday to address the supply problems.
In the meantime, Joburg water is supplying water tankers and additional Jojo tanks.
Watch: Residents of Robertsham, Johannesburg South protest outside the Joburg Water office in Southdale they have been without water for the last 12 days.
— The Star (@TheStar_news) March 22, 2023
Londi Nxumalo says now the city is no difference to the deep rural area where one has to go fetch water pic.twitter.com/6NnJnbxFNJ
Johannesburg water said its technical team is working around the clock to get its systems back on track.
“Johannesburg water continues to provide alternative water supply as the demand escalates.
“The entity is working on increasing the number of water tankers on the ground,’’ Joburg water said in a statement.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Rand Water issued a statement explaining that it suffered power failure at its Vereeniging purification works, which has impacted the supply of water in Johannesburg.
The entity said the outage at Eikenhof has affected the Commando system, comprising the Brixton, Hursthill and Crosby reservoirs, and the Waterval, Quellerina, Eagles Nest and Crown Gardens systems.
IOL