Joburg Water is making progress in replacing ageing infrastructure

Joburg Water is making steady progress in replacing old sewage and water piping infrastructure as well as completing road reinstatements following emergency and scheduled maintenance.

In the final quarter of the 2022/23 financial year over 100km of water piping and just under 70km of sewage piping were replaced against the targets of 26km and 15km respectively.

This equates to 385% and 467% of overachievement of the targets.

MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services Department, Michael Sun, said: “These numbers bring a smile to my face. It is evidence that Joburg Water is making serious progress in replacing ageing water infrastructure in Johannesburg as we have promised to our residents.”

These developments from May to July this year have aided Joburg Water in providing over 3 000 more households in Johannesburg with basic water services and securing a 12% drop in sewage blockages within the entire system for the period.

“Many residents don’t know that many parts of our infrastructure are decades old and in some cases, water pipes are older than 100 years.

“We take full cognisance that there is still much work to be done to fix Johannesburg, we will continue to work with Joburg Water to ensure progress continues to be made,” he said.

In this regard, Joburg Water is moving swiftly to repair pavements and roads excavated for emergency repairs and scheduled maintenance. The entity is dealing with a backlog of almost 1 400 minor road reinstatements yet to be completed after filling over 26 000 road cavities of varying complexity in July and August alone.

In addition to this, Joburg Water is working with the Johannesburg Roads Agency to address 21 sinkholes identified in the past few months. Repairs are expected to be completed by the end of 2022.

“We want to assure residents that we will not rest until Joburg is fixed and will ensure Joburg Water keeps to its promises. Joburgers deserve no less,” noted Sun.