City looks at long term solutions for water challenges

Residents, hospitals and clinics, schools and police stations, businesses and organisations serviced by the Hursthill, Brixton and Crosby reservoirs and towers have for years battled with water challenges.

In an attempt to address these woes, City of Johannesburg MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services Department, Mpho Moerane announced new plans on 27 May aimed at addressing the water challenges currently being experienced in these suburbs.

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According to Moerane, the City will invest more than R330 million towards building more resilient water infrastructure for Brixton, Hursthill and Crosby reservoirs and towers.

Moerane said, “In the pipeline are plans for a new connection from Rand Water to supplement water supply to the Crosby reservoir, a new booster pump station and associated pipework in Hursthill, and the construction of a new reservoir and tower in Brixton.” He added that the plans were at the design stage for all three projects.

Moerane assured all those affected by the water challenges that Rand Water and Johannesburg Water have made operational changes that have had a positive impact in increasing water flow and pressure to the reservoirs and towers. This would ensure consistent supply to residents, businesses and hospitals.

“In addition, the entity is building new water and sewer infrastructure across the seven regions of the city, with a new pump station and elevated water tower under construction at Crown Gardens, a vast water and sewer pipe replacement project in Parkmore, and another one in Orange Farm, all nearing completion.”

Moerane also met with Johannesburg Water management and councillors to discuss the Hursthill reservoir water supply shortages on 28 May.

Councillors who have been overburdened by residents looking for answers that they didn’t have, were informed by Johannesburg Water’s technical team on what interventions were currently underway in resolving the challenges.

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The councillors were also told that Rand Water had undertaken to explore technical options to try and resolve the problem and improve supply from their side.

One of the things that Rand Water would do was to conduct maintenance on their reflux valve and see if they could take it offline.

Rand Water would also check cross-connections between their and Johannesburg Water systems to see if all the water that was supposed to be coming into the reservoir was coming in.