Water woes worsen, residents concerned

As Rand Water continues with its infrastructure maintenance project at the Eikenhof and Zwartkopjes pumping stations, the water utility says work is going according to plan.

The extensive maintenance will run until the end of July and will impact major water systems across Gauteng.

However, Joburg Water said taps will not run completely dry during this period.

Soweto community concerned about impact

But Soweto residents and business owners are concerned about the impact this will have on their bread and butter, as well as on their daily living.

Peter Mazibuko of Chiawelo, which has been battling a water crisis for one month, said it won’t affect them much because they had already been without water.

“Whether its maintenance or not, it will be the same because we have been without water for weeks and we don’t know why.

ALSO READ: Community Chat: Have you stocked up on water for outages?

“We only get water at certain times of the day so, to us, it is the same because we have been having tough times already before this planned maintenance,” he said.

“When it is 4am, we wake up to stockpile water so that by the time it leaves at 6am, we have something. Then, during the day, we use tankers which can get empty early in the morning and we wait until the next truck comes.”

Laundry owner concerned

William Mosola, a laundry business owner in Dobsonville, said though there would be tankers and roaming water trucks, he was concerned about the impact on his small business.

“If there is low pressure or no water at all, it means no business for us. The amount of water needed to run a laundry business is a lot and stockpiling buckets just won’t be enough. It means that we lose business, especially during winter, when we see an influx of customers, when we can go up to 20 customers a day. So, you can imagine the anxiety and frustration.”

Mosola said he was increasingly worried as this would impose financial hardship. “It would mean sales revenue will be affected. And if I can’t generate revenue, I can’t run the business or function at its optimum.”

“I rely completely on the business. I don’t have an action plan on how we will prepare for this should the taps run dry.”

ALSO READ: Long water shutdown looms over Joburg: Here are the affected areas

Water trucks and JoJo tanks made available

Though Joburg Water assured citizens 85 water trucks and 250 JoJo tanks would be made available in areas where they are much needed, residents are complaining about their reliability.

“We are worried that this happens too often,” said resident Sipho Dlamini.

“In the past, we’ve had to scramble to get water because they say water is at a certain location, only to find that there is a delay, or it’s not there altogether. ”

The Citizen team drove around Randburg and there were no water tankers as indicated on official communications.

But Joburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Tshabalala assured residents alternative water supplies were planned.

“The maintenance will only commence in the evening. For now, people are still getting normal supply. Tomorrow is when the impact will be felt. That’s why those sites were without the tankers… We’ll be deploying tankers and roaming trucks to areas that will be heavily impacted.”

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