Ward councillors blamed City of Ekurhuleni’s (CoE) ageing water infrastructure for Thursday’s water outages in Germiston, Bedfordview and Kempton Park.
Ward Clr Alta de Beer described water and power outages as “reaching a crisis level in the CoE”.
“It is unacceptable that large areas of Ekurhuleni are so vulnerable to water outages because for years now, residents and businesses have been affected by rampant and incessant water outages,” de Beer said on Thursday.
Areas affected by Thursday’s water outage included Bedfordview, Germiston, Lambton, Mimosa Park, Dinwiddie, Wadeville, Tedstonville, Klopperpark, Elandsfontein, Sunnyridge, Gerdview, Homestead, Rustavia, Sunnyrock, Dawnview, Primrose, Primrose Hill, Wychwood, Malvern East, Marlands, Albermarle, Dewittsrus, Norton Small Farms, Union, Cresslawn, Spartan, Isando, Croydon and many other areas.
“According to Ekurhuleni officials, the issue lies was the main pipeline between the Vaal Dam and Primrose, and Rand Water was allegedly investigating the issue.
“Lambton residents also reported low water pressure and the Ekurhuleni Water Department was supposedly investigating and monitoring the issue. Yet residents were left without water,” said de Beer.
“We believe that Rand Water is throttling the water supply to the Germiston and Kempton Park areas. This behaviour from Rand Water is totally unacceptable as residents were not informed of the issue.”
She called for transparency from Rand Water and requested adequate and accurate on-the-ground communication to Ekurhuleni residents.
She questioned the adequacy of the existing system in reference to Ekurhuleni’s population.
De Beer said that the water infrastructure is collapsing owing to the CoE’s ageing infrastructure.
“Our pleas have fallen on deaf ears,” said de Beer.
She added the Russel Road Reservoir that supplies water to large parts of Germiston, Albermarle and Wadeville cannot cope with the demand.
“A project commenced in 2019 to build a replacement reservoir in Russel Road, but came to an abrupt halt, because of non-performance from the appointed contractor.
“The contract was cancelled and the water department withdrew the budget from the project.
“Consequently, the Primrose and Isando reservoirs have been negatively affected, adversely affecting water supply to large parts of Germiston and Kempton Park. This, again, has a huge impact on industrial areas which are already under strain because of the unreliable electricity supply.
“The city manager, Dr Imogen Mashazi, must reallocate funds to the Russel Road Reservoir Project. The project must be completed urgently, to prevent future water supply disasters.
“As Covid-19 continues to grip our country and the world, we need basic services are delivered. How are communities expected to practice good hygiene, when their taps barely have running water?”
Councillors from the numerous wards affected said on Thursday they were arranging water tankers with the CoE.
The City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) blamed Rand Water for Thursday’s widespread water outage.
In response to complaints about water outages in Germiston, Bedfordview, Thembisa and Kempton Park on Thursday, CoE said the low water pressure to no water was due to restricted supply from Rand Water.
“Rand Water’s distribution network is currently under severe pressure with water demand consistently exceeding water supply,” said CoE spokesperson Zweli Dlamini.
“This resulted in very low levels in some of the critical reservoirs in three of our supply systems being Eikenhof, Palmiet and Mapleton.
“Despite several endeavours to implement load shifting from one system to another, we are still not able to salvage the situation. This necessitated that we invoke our emergency protocol, with immediate effect, in order to retain the three systems,” Dlamini said on Thursday afternoon.
Water tankers were dispatched and stationary water tanks were placed in areas that do not have any water supply.
Dlamini said areas affected included Bedfordview, Essexwold, Bedford Gardens, Edenglen, Isandovale, Sebenza, parts of Eastleigh, Elandsfontein, Klopperpark, Harmelia, Isando, Spartan, Terenure, Bonaero Park, Parts of Pomona, Chloorkop, Kempton Park West, Croydon, Esther Park, Van Riebeeck Park, Aston Manor, Nimrod Park, Glen Marais, Bredell, Rhodesfield, Dinwiddie, Norton Small Farms, Albermale, Union Extension, Lambton, Delville, Germiston, Driehoek, Delville, Dawnview, Malvern East, Sunnyridge, high-lying areas of Palm Ridge, Palm Ridge Extension Three, Zonkezizwe, Primrose, Wychwood, Gerdview, Elsburg, Castleview, Homestead, Wadeville, Roodekop Ext 31, Hazeldene, Parkhill and Industrial East.
“Technicians from the city are closely monitoring the system and implementing measures to boost the levels in the affected reservoirs. Updates on water tanks and water tanker locations will be communicated via COE’s social media platforms,” said Dlamini.
