Swimming pools will not be open anytime soon
The Florida Lake swimming pool received a budget of 1.8m in 2022 for maintenance and in January, red sand was discovered while they were trying to fix another valve issue.
The Roodepoort Record recently reported that the Florida Lake and Florida North swimming pools will not be ready for this year’s swimming season.
This information was brought forward by Florida North Resident Association chairperson Rodney Churchyard, who received multiple questions and concerns about why the pools are currently closed.
Rodney stated that in 2022, the Florida Lake swimming received a budget of R1.8m for maintenance, which includes building work, electrical pool work and plumbing work. This comes after the pool was temporarily closed because of a leak that developed inside the pool, leading to it losing too much water.
• Also read: Swimming pools not ready for summer
With regards to why the swimming pool is currently closed again, Nthatisi Modingoane, the City of Johannesburg spokesperson, says at the end of January they discovered red sand coming from the bottom draw pipe while addressing a valve issue and it became apparent during a routine check before the valve could be repaired.
He says this issue couldn’t be fixed earlier because the issue with the bottom draw pipe was unforeseen, and the contractors were still in the process of providing a quote for the valve repair and this delayed the start of the actual repair work.
“The contractors have inspected the valve and provided a quote for repairs. However, work cannot proceed until we receive final approvals and address the issue of red sand leaking from the bottom draw pipe. Repairs have not been completed yet.
“Due to the pending valve repair and the need to assess and potentially fix the bottom draw pipe, we cannot provide a definitive timeline for when the Florida Lake pool will reopen,” said Modingoane.
The Florida North swimming pool will also not be reopening its doors to the public. While it did not face technical issues like Florida Lake pool, it has been closed since February due to an electricity account mix-up between the swimming pool and a signage company with a nearby billboard.
“The delay in addressing the issue is related to the electricity mix-up, which led City Power to cut off power to both the billboard and the swimming pool. We are actively working with City Power and our directorate to resolve this,” said Modingoane.
