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Johannesburg residents may experience brown water flowing out their taps following recent maintenance of the water system.
“Customers … may note brownish water when opening their taps in the morning when water returns. This phenomenon is not uncommon and is caused by calcified mineral deposits in older pipes that generally get flushed away by letting the taps run for a little while. It is no cause for concern,” Johannesburg Water confirmed in a customer notice on Sunday.
“Allowing the taps to run for a short while also allows trapped air to escape, which sometimes worsens the loosening up calcified mineral deposits,” it added.
This follows prior outages and maintenance that occurred over the weekend.
The utility said there is additional maintenance taking place across the city.
An ongoing burst pipe repair in Killarney has taken longer than initially projected, due to a shortage of materials.
“To enable the repairs the water system has temporarily been shut potentially causing low water pressure or no supply.”
The ongoing burst pipe repairs in Killarney are affecting these areas:
Completion is estimated for 4pm on Monday.
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On Monday, Joburg Water announced a planned maintenance operation at Hector Norris pump station.
The maintenance will start on Friday at 6pm and continue until 3 February.
Residents in the affected areas will not have any water during this period.
According to the utility this maintenance involves installing new isolation valves.
It will affect numerous areas across Johannesburg, including the CBD, multiple suburbs, and industrial areas.
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According to Joburg Water, these areas will be affected by the water outage:
Additionally, Protea Glen residents were warned to prepare for scheduled maintenance on 11 February, from 7am to 7pm, affecting all extensions.
This maintenance involves retrofitting PRV components. Joburg Water said roaming water tankers will be provided as an alternative water supply.
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