Rand Water completing generator installation as power outages decrease water supply

Rand Water is in the process of completing its generator project to reduce the effects of power outages.

The water utility, however, stated that generator capacity will not cover all Rand Water sites.

Water stability affected

“Power outages remain one of the biggest threats to the stability of Rand Water’s networks as it affects continuous water supply to municipalities.”

In a statement issued on Monday, Rand Water revealed that the maximum water treatment capacity of purification plants (Zuikerbosch and Vereeniging) is 5 000 mega litres of water a day.

Process

From its water purification works, purified water is pumped to pump stations (Eikenhof, Mapleton, Palmiet and Zwartkopjes) that further pump water to a total of 59 water storage reservoirs in our distribution network from which municipalities receive water to distribute to its residents.

“The total reservoir storage level on 8 January 2023 was at 76%. This level started to significantly decline from 9 January 2023 due to high water abstraction by municipalities in our reservoirs.

“The situation was exacerbated by power supply failures that affected Zuikerbosch purification plant and Eikenhof pump station on 13 January 2023,” the statement read.

Reservoirs also affected

According to Rand Water, the power outage lasted for six hours and affected Zuikerbosch pumping station at its Engine Room 4 which supplies almost 40% of Rand Water’s capacity.

Also, this affected pumping to the water utility’s pump stations that feed water into reservoirs.

Power outage at Eikenhof booster station affected the system for a period of 3 hours making it impossible to feed water into the reservoirs.

“Rand Water’s system is extremely sensitive to any power outage and may take a minimum of 4 hours to recover after an outage. The reservoir storage level had as a result dropped to 63% when the system recovered.”

READ MORE: Stage 6 load shedding: Water supply under threat

Municipalities requested to decrease consumption

“The drop in water storage level in the reservoir resulted in Rand Water requesting municipalities to reduce their consumption to retain as much water in the reservoirs and ensure the system does not drop to a point of crushing and almost impossible recovery.”

Rand Water also said that the water storage in the reservoirs have stabilised to around 30%.

However, at this low level there were other reservoirs that were significantly impacted to be below 15%.

“When some of Rand Water reservoir levels are below 15%, the municipalities start experiencing inadequate to no supply to high lying areas in their networks.”

“Rand Water continued engaging with its customers via the meetings and formal letters to request them to monitor water consumption in their respective areas and effect the necessary measures to manage high water consumptions during the heatwave.”

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