Residents of Bloubosrand were left without water for nine days after a leaking water pipe needed to be replaced due to ageing infrastructure.
Ward 115 councillor Matome Mafokwane said while the problem had been sorted out for the time being, only 46 per cent of water pressure had been restored at the time of writing this article, as a safety precaution.
“Residents have been very angry and that is completely understandable. Even though it took a long time, this issue needed to be fixed to ensure that the problem does not continue in the near future,” he said.
Mafokwane added that a portion of pipe needed to be replaced with 600mm PVC piping due to leaks coming from ageing asbestos pipes.
Recharging of water will continue at a slow rate to ensure that no damage takes place from a quick burst of water pressure.
On 27 July, the problematic pipe showed signs of strain near Waterford View Estate and a query was logged. Inspectors of Joburg Water attended to the site on 29 July.
Mafokwane said, “The teams from Joburg Water went to the site and conducted an assessment. When the water was turned off, they discovered infrastructure so old that it was literally rotting away. Measures had to immediately be taken to repair the rotten pipes, especially as digging had already commenced.”
Various joins and couplings had to be re-engineered due to their age, which also hindered the turnaround time of the process.
“On Conduit Road, there is a burst that was repaired in January. That burst is sitting on the same line as this one, and the whole infrastructure needs to be replaced. Joining old asbestos pipes to new PVC ones will only lead to massive problems in the future.
“The plan for the future is to replace over 4.6km of piping in the area… For this, we will require a large budget that I am hoping to get approved soon.”
Related article:
Rand Water planned maintenance wraps with minimal disruption
