Latest update, as of 1 June 11.30am
JOBURG – Johannesburg Water has once again apologised for water shortages following power supply challenges at the Rand Water Eikenhof pump station.
Despite the pump station being working at full capacity since the evening of 30 May, the system was still recovering. According to Johannesburg Water (JW), due to the size of the system and the fact that it was down for quite some time, the flow of water supplied from Rand Water into their system had not normalised yet.
A 31 May statement from JW read, “The critical areas are still our Crosby, Brixton and Hurst Hill reservoirs. Inflow is still limited although improved. We managed to start pumping from Crosby to Brixton reservoir although only with one pump, whereas we should actually pump with two.”
Fortunately, this allowed JW to start the recovery of the Brixton reservoir by building some capacity although the reservoir was still closed. The water utility said this available capacity would allow them to start two pumps which would pump water into the Brixton tower, thus the areas fed by the tower would start getting water during the course of 1 June.
“The Hurst Hill reservoir inflow is still very low and JW hasn’t been able to recover the reservoir yet. Flows into the reservoir are monitored and we are in contact with Rand Water to see if supply can’t be improved,” continued the statement.
It added that affected areas in Roodepoort have recovered with the exception of the Constantia Kloof tower, and JW wouldn’t be able to start the pumps at this stage as the supply pressure from Rand Water was still too low. In the south of Johannesburg, JW was still recovering their Crown Gardens, Eagles Nest, and Lenasia reservoirs.
The inflow was still low but was busy improving and JW expected a good recovery during the low demand times in the evening of 31 May.
Amid criticism that hospitals were being impacted by the lack of water supply, Johannesburg Water assured that they could provide water to Helen Joseph and Rahima Moosa hospitals by providing water tanks.
