12-hour water disruptions due to maintenance: Here are the affected areas

Johannesburg Water has announced a planned water outage scheduled for Saturday, 1 March, affecting several areas in the city’s northern regions.

The interruption, set to last from 9am to 9pm, was necessitated by urgent repairs to a burst 900mm diameter steel pipeline at the intersection of Acacia Road and Republic Road in Ebony Park.

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Affected areas

The affected areas included:

• Greater Ivory Park;
• Ebony Park;
• Kaalfontein;
• All extensions of Rabie Ridge.

Residents in these regions may experience a complete water shutdown during the maintenance period.

Johannesburg Water stated that the repair work aims to enhance service delivery.

In their official communication, Johannesburg Water acknowledged the inconvenience caused by the outage and assured residents that measures were in place to mitigate the impact.

“Further details regarding alternative water supply will be provided,” the utility mentioned.

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Joburg recoveries from outages

Mayor Dada Morero confirmed during a media briefing last week Friday that most Johannesburg residents have access to water following a series of power failures that impacted crucial pumping stations in the city.

“The water supply situation has significantly improved compared to last Friday, 14 February,” Morero stated.

“Some areas may still be without water, but this is likely due to airlocks, which our teams are actively working to resolve.”

The disruptions began on 10 February when power failures hit the Eikenhof pump station and continued with outages at both the Zwartkopjes and Eikenhof stations on 11 and 12 February.

Further complications arose from power issues at Lethabo and Vereeniging, alongside a City Power disruption between 16 and 19 February.

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Water recovery underway

Morero noted that technical teams from Johannesburg Water and Rand Water were collaborating to restore services in affected areas.

He also reported that the Alexander Park and Berea systems had stabilised, and customer complaints had significantly reduced as teams addressed the airlock problems.

“We’ve approved additional teams to work during the week and over weekends to handle emergencies and backlogs,” Morero added.

He said the city has begun hiring more fitters, welders, and bricklayers to strengthen maintenance capacity.

Johannesburg Water has introduced several measures to manage high water demand, such as pressure valve maintenance, the creation of new pressure management zones, and proactive leak detection.

The utility has also been implementing rotational water reductions since November 2024.

Additional reporting by Enkosi Selane.

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