Power supply to Rand Water’s Zuikerbosch treatment plant restored, says Eskom

Eskom says there were no damages reported at its Snowden substation in Gauteng after a veld fire on Sunday afternoon.

This follows Rand Water’s warning at the weekend that its Zuikerbosch Water Treatment Works in Vereeniging had been severely affected by the power supply interruption at Eskom’s Snowden substation.

Eskom’s Gauteng spokesperson Amanda Qithi on Monday confirmed power supply to the Zuikerbosch Water Treatment Works was fully restored at 5.45pm on Sunday.

She said the outage was due to a trip caused by the veld fire at the Snowden substation, which supplies Rand Water’s Zuikerbosch Water Treatment Works.

“The veld fires caused the feeders to trip, which resulted in the supply interruption to the Rand Water treatment plant. After the fire subsided, supply was restored on the same day to the Rand Water treatment plant,” Qithi said in a brief statement.

The power outage had resulted in Rand Water losing 60% of its production capacity at the Zuikerbosch Water Treatment Works. It affected four of the water utility’s major systems in Eikenhof, Mapleton, Zwartkopjes and Palmiet.

Rand Water’s spokesperson Justice Mohale had warned that it could take up to two days before water is fully restored to its municipal customers in Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Tshwane, Mogale City, Rustenburg and West Rand.

In the meantime, Rand Water has urged its consumers to conserve water.