Ekeinhof pump station update and recovery of Johannesburg Water infrastructure

The City of Johannesburg Executive Mayor, Kabelo Gwamanda, has confirmed that the current water supply challenge in some parts of the city was triggered by two incidents that occurred at Rand Water’s Eikenhof pump station due to City Power outages.

One was on Sunday, March 3 and this was followed by another one Monday, March 4. These two incidents affected the stability of certain reservoirs within the Johannesburg Water system.

The mayor said about 50% of our systems in Johannesburg are supplied or fed by Rand Water Eikenhof pump station, hence the impact we are seeing. Affected areas are in Randburg, Roodepoort, Soweto, Johannesburg South and Central.

“Since Wednesday, 6 March we have been noting improvements in our systems with impacted reservoirs and towers recovering and this is having an impact on residents receiving steady water supply.”

Gwamanda explained that the systems will take time to recover. This is because water is not like electricity; you cannot just flip a switch, and it comes back on. Water goes through the 12 400 km pipeline of various systems around the city of Johannesburg.

‘While alternative water supply cannot replace the convenience provided by constant and normal supply, as an intervention and to assist our residents we have 35 water tankers providing emergency water supply to affected areas.”

“In addition, we have prioritised hospitals, clinics and, schools and old age homes located in areas that are still in recovery,” said Gwamanda.

The mayor would like to commend technical teams from both Johannesburg Water, Rand water and City Power who continue working around the clock to ensure that we bring our affected systems to stability for the benefit of our residents.

“I urge and encourage residents to work with us in bringing the high-water consumption down which is threatening the sustainability of consistent water supply,” concludes Gwamanda.