City of Joburg to raise R100 billion to fix appalling infrastructure

Power failures, the collapse of bulk water suppliers and “high temperatures” are among the issues contributing to water supply challenges in the City of Joburg, while infrastructure problems with Johannesburg Water and City Power need to be resolved, said Joburg mayor Dada Morero.

It was important to note the issue was not about a water shortage but rather the inability to pump water as a result of “technical issues”, he said. Morero said: “We took a decision that we will raise the R100 billion for infrastructures we need to upgrade, replenish and build new infrastructure.”

Government intervention:

Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu had agreed to increase the water supply to Rand Water, which would help if there were no major leaks.

At the Johannesburg Pikitup facility, water had leaked from Village Street to Westgate train station at Ntemi Piliso Street.

Employees from the facility said the leak had started more than five months ago. Morero said more reservoirs were needed.

“On Joburg Water, we want to build a new reservoir just around different areas that we are talking about. Just to have enough,” he said.

Joburg Water managing director Ntshavheni Mukwevho said power failures and high temperatures had led to an increase in water demand and were the main reasons for the reservoirs running low.

Interruptions

On Sunday, Joburg Water announced Rand Water’s Vereeniging purification works had been hit with a power outage which affected the water supply at the Eikenhof pump.

This, in turn, reduced supply at the Commando system and Rand Water’s direct feeds. Mukwevho said the power failure on 23 September at their bulk supplier plant had heavily affected the Commando system.

It was understood Rand Water experienced a power failure at their Vaal water works which resulted in a 50% reduction in bulk water supply to their Eikenhof pump station.

Mukwevho said the Commando system acquired its water from Eikenhof and the Commando system relied on Rand Water for volume.

“We actually require 2 500 kilolitres per hour to get our reservoir to operate at the optimal level,” he said “With the power interruption, the reservoir for our bulk supplier went low which affected our reservoirs as well.”

Mukwevho said the process usually took about four days to recover. “It took long to resolve the problems because there were a number of other power failures subsequent to the first one,” he said.

“So, we constantly had to start from scratch as … whatever was done to bring back the system was constantly eroded.”

Mukwevho urged Johannesburg residents to use water sparingly as consumption remained stubbornly high. City Power chief executive Tshifularo Mashava said at the briefing it was working with Joburg Water.

“One of the things we are looking at is to see how to exclude them from load shedding.

“The problem currently is that most of Joburg Water facilities are embedded within our network, making it difficult to exempt them,” she said.

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