Water restored after taps ran dry for days

Plans to restore water in Craigavon got even worse when things took an unexpected turn after Joburg Water responded to complaints about taps running dry for days in the area on August 15.

According to ward councillor David Foley, on the same day, Joburg Water planned a tie-in to create additional capacity in the area starting from 06:00 to 18:00 but things did not go as planned. He said the pipe configuration had to be redone and took two nights in a row as the connection became unstable due to pressure.

“The new configuration was put into plan on August 17 and has worked but there are still a couple of streets impacted which will be resolved on August 18,” he explained.

He added: “This is a different problem where isolation valves could not be opened again. The ward councillors for wards 94 and 115 worked endless hours with the teams to resolve this and update residents. Basically, a big area in Craigavon and Witkoppen suburb was without water for three full days. A couple of streets going into day four now.”

These were the longest days ever for one of the residents Dania Sciarappa who had a lot of questions about the delivery of services, “So Craigavon and Fourways life will just live without water? Are they still investigating after this long? Are we picking our noses and brushing them off? Literally, there are suburbs who do not pay utilities but have water more often,” she said.

While Musa Baloyi said it was hard for him to survive the past few days. “Water tankers were dispatched but that was not enough because most of the time they do not come on time or find that we are still caught up at work. So, I had to buy water at the shops for me to be able to drink, cook, and bathe. I did not want to add laundry because it was not enough.”

Joburg Water confirmed in a media update that their technical teams have completed repairs and water has been restored in the area.

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