The Johannesburg water outage will still take place from Tuesday, 11 July until Friday, 14 July. Photos: iStock and Photo: Cliff Sean/ YouTube screengrab
Monday’s snowfall across parts of Johannesburg will not put the brakes on this week’s 58-hour water outage, which will affect several regions in the city.
Rand Water – which will be carrying out planned maintenance – said it has been inundated with phone calls from residents about whether the major outage will still commence on Tuesday.
“We had a meeting this morning and the shutdown is continuing,” Rand Water communications manager Makenosi Maroo told News24 on Monday morning.
According to Maroo, water experts concluded that weather conditions would not cause an interference with the entity’s upgrades.
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On Friday, Johannesburg Water announced that the planned shutdown has been extended and will come to an end 14 hours later than previously communicated.
The 58-hour-long shutdown, which will affect almost 138 areas, is scheduled to start from 7pm on Tuesday, 11 July.
The completion date of the maintenance has been moved from 3pm on Thursday, 13 July, to 5am on Friday, 14 July.
Johannesburg Water said that the full recovery of the system after the shutdown may take up to five days or even as long as 14 days for some areas after supply has been restored.
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The purpose of the shutdown is to complete a tie-in with a new pipeline, install isolation valves and upgrade Rand Water’s Eikenhof pump station, which have been plagued by crippling power outages and pump failures in recent months.
According to Rand Water, the maintenance includes the replacement of multiple valves at the Vereeniging water treatment plant, Eikenhof booster pumping station and Zuikerbosch water treatment plant.
The last part of the project will be to work on electrical boards at Lethabo pumping station.
During the shutdown, Johannesburg Water infrastructure supplied by Eikenhof pump station will have no water supply, as well as those areas receiving direct supply from Rand Water.
Rand Water said that some residents within the local municipalities of Rustenburg, Mogale City, and the Rand West “will experience intermittent water supply” while the maintenance project is implemented.
Water supply in the affected areas at Daleside booster station will be reduced by 50% for a period of eight hours.
At Zwartkopjes booster station, it will be reduced by 40% for a period of 24 hours, and by 24% Eikenhof Booster Station for a period of 58 hours.
Roaming water tankers will be provided to the affected areas and Johannesburg Water will arrange for alternative supply at hospitals, clinics, schools, municipal offices, police stations and shopping centres.
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The following 138 areas are expected to be impacted by the outage:
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