Water woes continue in Fourways

The water crisis become a headache for residents.

April 12, 2023

Success Mthombeni 1 minute read

In the past week, residents have been left to cope without water or with low pressure.

A Joburg water tank supplies residents during an emergency shutdown.

Following the major outage in the Fourways area, Joburg Water kept residents up to date via social media.
However, none of the messages carried good news about repairs to the burst pipe on the corner of Witkoppen Road and William Nicol Drive, which left many areas affected.

A Joburg Water tank is placed at Sibaya Sand.

Water tanks were placed in various areas, including Tezula Lifestyle Estate, Fourways Life Hospital, Olivendale Hospital and Pineslopes Shopping Centre, to provide residents with a temporary supply as Joburg Water attended to the issue.

According to Joburg Water, the job is a big one. Once an isolation valve was installed, a concrete slab was removed and excavations done to repair a 250mm high density polyethylene pipe.

Fourways Review contacted Joburg Water’s external communication officer Nolwazi Dhlamini on March 23 to understand the extent of the damages and the estimated time to fix or replace the burst pipes. She confirmed the same day that she received the query and said she would escalate it. Comment would take 48 hours or more, she said.

She also shared that Joburg Water released a statement on social media on March 25. The statement said the repairs team opened valves to restore water in the Fourways, Lonehill, Pineslopes, Witkoppen, Craigavon, and Beverley areas.

The site has had two bursts on the asbestos cement main. Water was isolated while the team focused on repairing the two bursts.

A water tank is placed in Pineslopes to offer residents temporary relief.

Joburg Water team conducts repairs at a previous site where there was a water issue.

On March 27, Dhlamini said she was still awaiting feedback from the engineers and would contact them to speed up the process. No further response had been received at the time of going to print on March 27.

Affected areas include: