Joburg hit with 86-hour water outage – here are the affected areas

Rand Water has started a massive infrastructure maintenance project, with water cuts lasting up to three days hitting South Africa’s richest city.

Rand Water said that the maintenance is designed to enhance system availability, reliability, and efficiency.

“The maintenance work is typically scheduled during periods of low demand. December is
particularly suitable for such work due to the closure of industries and by extension, the temporary
depopulation of Gauteng province as residents travel for holidays” said Rand Water

“This timing also allows for quicker system recovery once the maintenance is completed.”

At the Eikenhof pump station, pumping will be reduced to 20% for 86 hours from 07:00 on Friday, 13 December to Monday, 16 December.

Johannesburg Water noted that the maintenance is meant to correct the historical design of the engine rooms at the Eikenhof pump station.

Eikenhof has three engine rooms that were designed to be interrelated. When the system was designed many years ago, the new system was seen as ideal as Eikenhof was supplying water to limited customers.

However, with demand increasing, there is a need to make the engine rooms independent and increase their flexibility.

As per the maintenance, the system will be supplied normally for the first 24 hours. Thereafter, there will be a combination of low pressure to no pressure.

The areas impacted by the Eikenhof shutdown include:

• Randburg,
• Roodepoort,
• Soweto,
• Johannesburg Central and
• Commando (Brixton, Hursthill and Crosby).

In a separate maintenance project, the Zwartkopjes system will see pumping reduced to 70% for 36 hours from 05:00 until 17:00 on 14 December 2024.

For the first 8 hours, there will be no pumping at all. For the remaining hours, pumping will be reduced to 70% capacity.

They will be supplying normally for the first 24 hours. Thereafter, there will be a combination of low pressure to no pressure.

The following areas will be affected by the Zwartkopjes shutdown:

• Berea,
• Parktown,
• Hector Norris,
• Forrest Hill,
• Eagles Nest,
• Alan Manor,
• Naturena,
• Crown Gardens,
• Aeroton and
• Orlando East

Crisis hitting

The new shutdowns are yet another blow to residents in Johannesburg’s richest city, where water has become a scarce commodity.

Poor maintenance of the water network has resulted in taps running dry throughout the last two years, with water restrictions imposed on the city’s residents.

Much of the issue lies in the poor distribution network.

Non-revenue water (NRW) is the volume of water that is pumped but for which the municipality receives no income. The target for municipalities in South Africa is less than 25%.

However, the actual NRW in Johannesburg is roughly 45%.

Worryingly, Johannesburg Water has over R27 billion in its critical infrastructure backlog.

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