Johannesburg water outage: Only 75 tankers available to serve residents as taps splutter

Johannesburg residents who have not stocked up on water will have a mad scramble to access the resource.

Two large pump stations, that service five of the seven municipal regions under the City of Johannesburg, will be operating at limited capacity over the Day of Reconciliation long weekend.

Eikenhof station will be pumping at 20% from Friday morning until Monday night, while Zwartkoppies will swing from no pumping at all to 70% from Saturday morning until Sunday night.

Not enough water tankers

Fifteen water tankers per region are available to distribute water to fixed points across the areas affected, which include Randburg, Roodepoort, Soweto, the CBD and areas south of the city.

However, Democratic Alliance Gauteng Shadow MEC of Infrastructure Nico de Jager stated the number of tankers will struggle to supply the volume of demand.

“The problem is that in the time it takes to travel to a replenish point and back it could be hours of no water in that area,” De Jager told The Citizen.

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Adding to the discomfort for residents is the scorching weather predicted for the weekend and throughout December.

“We absolutely reject, and cannot accept that just 75 tankers will be provided for half of Johannesburg’s population to get clean water for multiple days on end,” said De Jager.

“This is a crisis barrelling toward Johannesburg at rapid speed. This reactive nature will now leave millions with their taps dry during the hottest month of the year,” he continued, blaming Rand Water’s lack of foresight.

Penalty fee for maintenance rescheduling

The DA shadow MEC said his party welcomed the maintenance work but lamented the inconvenient timing.

The DA had earlier asked Rand Water to postpone the maintenance but noted that the entity was reluctant to absorb a fine that would have been payable had they postponed.

“Rand Water cannot easily change the date of this shutdown for maintenance, as they have contracted themselves into an enormous contractor’s penalty fee of R27 million if they do so,” De Jager explained.

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He suggested that Rand Water had made sufficient profit to absorb the cost, but added that clearer communication was necessary.

“This was not a consultative process, as this decision was made in an office, detached from the lived reality on the ground. Rand Water lurches from one offence to the people to another,”

However, the Association of Water and Sanitation Institutions of South Africa (Awsisa) backed Rand Water’s scheduling, saying it was necessary to secure long-term water security.

“Infrastructure maintenance is essential to preserve and improve the delivery of water services, especially in the face of increasing demand and environmental pressure,” Awisa stated on Friday.  

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