No water and possible payment for air cry Emmarentia residents
Overnight throttling for months has left the community reeling with some now saying their water meters are running, and therefore billing, when air is forced through the pipes when supply is restored each morning.
Emmarentia has been extended water outages virtually every night for months on end because the reservoirs are throttled at night, according to a resident.
Johannesburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala said, “To is to help build capacity overnight when water demand and usage is lower.”
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Vaunn Kelly has lived in Emmarentia for 20 years and is exasperated by this seemingly endless disruption of water supply which impacts every aspect of city living. It seems the situation has not improved since the publication last spoke to him in March.
“We need to ensure we always have a bucket or two of water in the bathroom to flush the toilet and to bathe which is ridiculous. If I wanted to live in the bush without modern comforts like piped water into the property, I would not be in a city.”
The publication has seen an extensive email thread of emails from Kelly to Johannesburg Water, logging new faults and problems that come with outages.
One sentence reads, “We have lost water supply [not restored after the daily water-shedding] again on 12 June as of 07h00 (after losing water supply on 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 May, 1, 2, 5, 7, 9 June).”
Ward 88 councillor Nicolene Jonker has written to the City Manager, Floyd Brink asking for the matter to be investigated urgently.
“Emmarentia is supplied by the Hursthill 2 reservoir and residents are affected by water outages despite numerous requests for updates and assistance at Johannesburg Water,” said Jonker.
“Access to water is a basic necessity, and the current disruption is causing severe inconvenience and distress to residents of Emmarentia.”
She calls for a transparent and immediate update on the status of water outages and measures being implemented to restore supply.
Johannesburg Water said in response to questions that the problem was only recent, from 30 May, despite the lived reality of residents.
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“On 29 May 2024, a City Power substation experienced a power outage that impacted pumping at Rand Water’s Eikenhof Pump Station. This affected Johannesburg Water’s Commando system which comprises the Crosby, Brixton and Hursthill 1 and 2 reservoirs,” said Joburg Water.
“Then before the Commando System could fully recover, another incident at Rand Water’s Eikenhof Pump Station occurred the following day on 30 May 2024, further impacting the Commando System and prolonging/delaying recovery. As a result, the water supply into the Hursthill 1 and 2 reservoirs was impacted due to the prolonged/delayed restoration following the power outage.
“The reason Hursthill 2 struggled with water supply is because the reservoir receives supply from the Commando System, which is supplied by Rand Water’s Eikenhof Pumpstation.”
Anna Nair, also from Emmarentia said, “When the water is restored in the morning, and you open the taps, the air is flowing. I have a video of this which shows our water meter running from the air so am wondering if I will be billed more when the next meter reading is done.”
She added she was unaware of this happening before.
Ferial Adam from WaterCAN, an Outa initiative said, “Air billing is real, and it must be investigated. Johannesburg Water knows about it but is doing nothing to resolve the issue.”
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