How local restaurants are handling the planned water shutdown

Rand Water is now well under way with its planned water shutdown.

The purpose of which is described as one that seeks to complete a tie-in between the A19 and B14 with a new pipeline, installation of isolation valves, and systems upgrades at Rand Water’s Eikenhof pump station.

Though the upgrades are very necessary and welcomed, the shutdown does have trickle down effects that affect the lives and livelihoods of many in our communities. Our local restaurants are some businesses heavily affected by the shutdown.

Some local restaurants share on what measures they have put in place to ensure they don’t close their doors in this time and, most importantly, how they plan to keep their restaurant clean and safe.

Here is what they had to say:

Service Station

• By July 13 the restaurant had no water at all. They ready for the shutdown, having made sure to store both handwashing water and cooking water beforehand.

Spilt Milk

• The Melville-based restaurant has stored 10, 25litre drums of water which they keep re-filling, from a Jojo Tank found on 7th Street. The manager, Janine Hudson said in this community, there not being water at times is a usual occurrence. She shared, however, that it is better to work around not having electricity as opposed to not having water. As water is tied with food preparation and hygiene, which is important in every restaurant.

Smunch by Chef Zaid

• This Auckland Park-based restaurant’s taps went dry on July 13. They have managed to store water through the aid of nearby Jojo Tank. It’s manager, Zaid Bismillah, said the shutdown, has seen the restaurant’s efficiency take a strain. Now, instead of water being readily available at the taps, they have to collect it which slows down the kitchen process.

Love & Light Café

• This restaurant, which is located at Campus Square, has made provisions for both cooking water and cleaning water which they have collected with drums and buckets. Manager, Khanya Ngwenya, said their community has faced water outages before and these have made the restaurant mindful of the importance of storing water. She lives with the hope that this planned water shutdown, meant for maintenance, will better the lives of all.

According the Joburg Water site, benefits of the shutdown include:

• Improvement of infrastructure reliability and availability.
• Reduction of unplanned infrastructure breakdowns (emergency breakdowns)
• To allow flexibility, in that during maintenance, water supply can be supplemented from another pump station system thereby reducing the impact of water supply interruptions.
• To upgrade old critical water supply infrastructure.