Joburg Water has not fixed faulty fire hydrants nearly five months after they were reported by the fire department

The entity says it is not responsible for marking the hydrants and does not meet deadlines for attending to broken or faulty equipment.

July 2, 2023

Emily Wellman Bain 3 minutes read

Rust-filled filthy water was flushed from a street fire hydrant by the Roosevelt Fire Department during an inspection run. Photo: Emily Wellman Bain

When a building is on fire, roadside fire hydrants maintained by Johannesburg Water (JW) offer the best chance to extinguish the blaze.

When not maintained or clearly marked for firefighters to see, however, the consequences can be dire.

Every month, fire stations across the city conduct surveys of hydrants in their area and send a report to JW. The entity is responsible for maintaining and marking municipal hydrants with repairs to be affected within 48 hours as set out in the city’s Integrated Development Plan (IDP).

A February report from the Roosevelt Fire Department with a list of unmarked or faulty fire hydrants have not been attended to almost five months later.

In February, the Roosevelt Fire Department sent its monthly report of spot-checked hydrants, this time in Fairland.

At the time of going to print, these had not been fixed, nor marked – nearly five months later.

Ward 86 councillor Chantelle Fourie-Shawe said, “According to the IDP, which is the document that sets out the agreed service standards that the municipality will uphold in return for ratepayers’ money, JW should be repairing fire hydrants (at least 80% of them) within 48 hours of notification.”

Damaged fire hydrants leave buildings around them at risk if a fire was to break out. Photo: Emily Wellman Bain

These are ideally placed every 300m along streets meaning there are hundreds of thousands of them in the city.

Currently, the Roosevelt Fire Department has a truck on loan from the Randburg station due to staffing problems at the latter. This inevitably means the Roosevelt crew may attend fires outside of their normal operating areas, where they will be less familiar with where individual hydrants are placed. This makes the need for them to be clearly marked even more important.

JW spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala said, “The onus is on the fire departments, as part of their daily routines, to also familiarise themselves with fire hydrants, especially in high-risk zones within their regions.”

Below-ground fire hydrants are difficult to spot if not clearly marked either on a street pole or in the road with a blue Cats Eye. Photo: Emily Wellman Bain

Roosevelt Park Fire Department platoon commander Otsile Kobue took the Northcliff Melville Times on an inspection run near the station. “We do everything we can to check – hydrants are reported as not marked, or not working, but we have no control over whether they are attended to or not as JW owns and maintains their infrastructure.”

Shabalala said, “It is usually two days once reported, but our workload, priorities, and stock availability of materials, may affect these timeframes.”

When asked about marking the hydrants so firefighters can find them, different spokespersons had different responses.

Fire hydrants used to be marked clearly on street poles to make it easier for firefighters to locate them, but Johannesburg Water says this is no longer done systematically. Photo: Emily Wellman Bain

Shabalala said, “Hydrants are not marked because this is not part of the by-law, but has been done over the years as a best practice. Older type below-ground hydrants are similarly not marked. However, above-ground pipe hydrants are part of current JW specifications and are visibly coloured red and yellow.”

Nolwazi Dhlamini said, “It is Johannesburg Water’s main goal to mark and identify hydrants as soon as possible to ensure they are easily identifiable to the emergency crew. Timeframes may depend on factors such as available resources, the number of unmarked hydrants in the area, and the priority assigned to this task.”

At night, especially when looking for a below-ground fire hydrant, blue cat’s eye reflector markers on the road should be placed next to the hydrant to help identify where they are. This too it seems is not a ‘standard practice’ and was not answered directly by JW queries.

Johannesburg Roads Agency’s (JRA) Bertha Peters-Scheepers said while these are placed on city streets, they are identification for JW infrastructure and therefore the JRA has no role to play in placing them.

Frans Mathiba from the Roosevelt Park Fire Department checks a fire hydrant near Roosevelt Park High School. Photo: Emily Wellman Bain.

“So many city departments are not fulfilling this mandate and as council, we will hold them accountable through our oversight committees and seek final accountability from the city manager and finally, the governing party of the day. Service delivery continues to decline, and residents are expected to keep paying for it. As a collective, the DA stands with residents and will keep fighting for good governance,” said Fourie-Shawe.

Dhlamini, in response to questions about whether residents can claim against the city for losses due to faulty hydrant’s, said, “This would depend on various factors, including by-laws, regulations, and specific circumstances surrounding the incident.”