Finch water tower exempted from load-shedding

Ward 85 councillor, Zoné Hughes started a motion to have the Finch water tower exempted from load-shedding after residents struggled without water.

She explained after load-shedding, the water pumps did not work, leaving residents without water as well as power. She noted up until November 28 the residents experienced 1 028 hours without water altogether. This is caused by the pumps not turning on after load-shedding.

She noted the process to have the water tower exempted started in January and in November, Joburg Water (JW) confirmed they are in the process of having the tower exempted. The trouble is still however when there are unplanned area outages, which is when they would need a generator or backup power supply.

She added the tower does not only feed water to the residents of that area, but ‘it feeds up until close to Helderkruin, also taking the strain of the Kite Street Water which was decomissioned 20 years ago’.

On November 30, the second day of the 16th Ordinary Council meeting, Hughes tabled a motion for a generator or backup power supply to handle the unplanned outages in the area, which happens a lot and still leaves residents without water. The vote was however not in favour of this.

JW has not commented at the time the article was published, as soon as comment is received an update will be given.