The planned water shutdown which will affect a large part of Johannesburg will take place next week. Picture: iStock
Johannesburg Water announced that Rand Water’s planned shutdown next week has been extended and will now 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.
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.
On Thursday, Johannesburg Water warned residents in affected areas that recovery can take between five and 14 days after the supply has been fully restored.
It urged its customers to start storing water at least 48 hours before the shutdown and not wait until the day before to do so.
“Residents can start storing water a few days (two days or earlier) before the shutdown to reduce the impact on reservoirs and towers,” it said.
“Customers are requested not to store water on the day before the shutdown as some of Johannesburg Water’s reservoirs will already be isolated (closed) to retain capacity on the supply side. This is also for quicker recovery post the shutdown.”
Johannesburg Water would arrange for an alternative supply at hospitals, clinics, schools, municipal offices, police stations and shopping centres.
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.
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The following 138 areas are expected to be impacted by the outage:
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