The City of Ekurhuleni has started negotiations with Rand Water to acquire land on which to build a new reservoir.
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The reservoir is to be built next to the Northridge reservoir in Ward 92.
However, the process is ongoing, and the project is still in the planning stages.
Because of vandalism to Rand Water’s infrastructure, the entity struggled to supply water to Wards 92 and 36 last month.
According to Rand Water, after the restoration of the water supply at the Palmiet system, Makause informal settlement residents vandalised the air valves on the J5, J6, and J10 pipelines to obstruct water at those locations, affecting the supply to the Primrose and Germiston reservoirs.
Ward 92 Clr Kade Guerreiro welcomed the news and said that if it materialises, the ward would have sufficient water storage during and after water outages.
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Furthermore, Rand Water said that if a reservoir is required, it must be constructed by the municipality because it is responsible for providing residents with water.
Rand Water provides the municipalities with water but not households.
“A second reservoir will guarantee that the city has enough water to supply residents for at least two to three days if Rand Water fails to supply water.
“The existing one can only last two days. With the new one, we’ll have five days of water storage,” said Guerreiro.
Water security, according to Guerreiro, is an issue the nation must address.
“I’ve been advocating for this since I became a councillor in the ward. In terms of water provision, this ward is one of a kind.
“One part of the ward gets water supply from a different stream that includes Meadowdale and Highway Gardens,” said Guerreiro.
“Meadowdale and Highway Gardens only had two water outages since I became a councillor,” he added.
Guerreiro said the difficulty for Sunnryridge and Sunnyrock is that they are high-lying areas.
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“That is when Rand Water has a problem. These areas are the first to experience a water shortage and the last to receive water once the water supply is restored after an outage.
“Rand Water needs to pump water to the reservoir. Then we pump the water to the water tower and then to the residents.
“The reservoir operates on what is known as gravity flow. Once the pumped water begins to channel out, lower-lying areas will have water first,” said Guerreiro.
He said the goal is to construct a much larger water tower and reservoir next to the Sunnyridge water tower and Northridge reservoir using modern technology.
“We already have two towers and a reservoir, but a third and second are needed,” said Guerreiro.
“The infrastructure is getting old. The second, smaller tower was constructed in 1958. The old tower has cracks, raising concerns about its stability.
“The tower provides water to thousands of people and should not be compromised. The oldest tower needs to be plastered and furnished,” said Guerreiro.
He urged residents to continue using water sparingly.
“People are urged to have backup water storage in buckets and bottles,” said Guerreiro.
