Johannesburg Water hosted a public meeting at the Region E head office in Sandton to advise residents about an upcoming pipe-replacement project in Sandown Ext 24.
The meeting was also an opportunity for residents to address any concerns they may have about the project, however, only three residents attended the meeting.
Ward 103 councillor Vincent Earp and Tshilidzi Tshikovhi, from Johannesburg Water, along with some of the engineers and contractors who will be working on the project, attended the meeting to inform residents about the project.
The suburb has seen numerous burst pipes due to the ageing infrastructure and the pipe replacement project will replace the pipes in 14 locations. Streets that will be affected include Adrienne Street, Aston Street, Tamar and North roads, North Road, Gerhard and David streets, Adolph and David streets, Rivonia Road, Marion Street as well as East and West lanes.
Tshikovhi said that the replacement project would form part of the Vuk’uphile (Creating opportunities) Learnership Programme, a contractor development programme, which helps contracts earn Construction Industry Development Board grades. Contractors start the programme at Grade 1 and they hope to advance to a grade 4 or 5. It is envisaged that the project will take four months.
There will be a contractor for each location and they will all be supervised by a mentor contractor to ensure that the work is of a high quality. Residents were also assured that there would be minimal time without water during the project. With regard to the reinstatement of driveways and sidewalks, Tshikovhi assured that Joburg Water would do its utmost to ensure that driveways be restored to their original condition.
The project will also employ unemployed people from Region E to do some of the manual labour such as digging the trenches.
Jacoline Madiba, stakeholder relations manager for Joburg Water said, “We will indicate on our shutdown notice, which streets will be affected. We are not going to shut down the entire area.”
Details: Johannesburg Water 011 688 1400.
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