{"id":881085,"date":"2026-10-22T16:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T14:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=881085"},"modified":"2026-10-22T17:44:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T15:44:57","slug":"contamination-crisis-hits-south-africas-capital-22-more-areas-urged-to-boil-water-before-drinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/881085\/contamination-crisis-hits-south-africas-capital-22-more-areas-urged-to-boil-water-before-drinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Contamination crisis hits South Africa&#8217;s capital &#8211; 22 more areas urged to boil water before drinking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The City of Tshwane has activated an alternative water supply for the city of Pretoria after tests confirmed that the city&#8217;s water had been contaminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The City of Tshwane confirms that water-quality testing detected microbiological non-compliance affecting water supplied from Findlay Reservoir on 21 October 2026,&#8221; the City of Tshwane said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Findlay Reservoir is supplied by a combination of underground water and water from the country&#8217;s bulk water utility, Rand Water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The municipality said that the underground water is usually &#8220;high quality&#8221; and requires minimal chlorination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It explained that the contamination was caused by a burst sewer pipe, which allowed contaminated water to enter the water supply system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This resulted in elevated microbial levels that exceeded the capacity of the existing chlorination measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The municipality said it has isolated the source of the contamination and emptied the Findlay Reservoir after detecting contamination in the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Residents of Pretoria, specifically Pretoria CBD and surrounds, have been switched to an alternative supply from Salvokop Reservoir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This incident is separate from and unrelated to the ongoing water crisis in Bronkhorstspruit,&#8221; the municipality said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The City of Tshwane has urged residents and businesses in the affected areas to boil tap water before using it, until further notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following areas are affected:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Arcadia<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Asiatic Bazaar<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Asiatic Bazaar Extension 1<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Belle Ombre 636-JR<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cape Boys&#8217; Location<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Daspoort 319-JR<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Elandspoort 357-JR<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Marabastad<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Phillip Nel Park<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pretoria<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pretoria Central<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pretoria Extension 1<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pretoria Extension 9<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pretoria Extension 11<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pretoria Extension 14<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pretoria Town and Townlands 346-JR<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pretoria and Townlands 351-JR<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pretoria and Tshwane<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Prinshof 349-JR<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Skougronde 648-JR<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sunnyside<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Trevenna<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The City of Tshwane urged residents and businesses to take the following precautions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Discard stored tap water and ice made from tap water<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bring tap water to a rolling boil for at least one minute before using it for drinking, cooking, preparing food or brushing teeth. Allow it to cool before use.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Do not consume unboiled tap water or use it to prepare food<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Share this advisory with neighbours, tenants and others who may be affected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The city will also provide access to safe drinking water through water tankers deployed to affected communities. Tanker locations and availability will be communicated to residents,&#8221; said the municipality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the affected source has been isolated and an alternative supply activated, the municipality has urged residents to continue to observe the boil-water advisory until further testing confirms that the water is safe for consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The city said it will continue to monitor water quality, flush the affected network, and undertake the necessary corrective work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Further updates will be provided as the work progresses, including confirmation of when the advisory can safely be lifted.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The City of Tshwane has activated an alternative water supply for the city of Pretoria after water tests confirmed contamination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":859636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2113295824977317926","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2245628466257552","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17990201766118468","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1],"tags":[26916,8291,22278],"class_list":["post-881085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-trending","tag-contaminated-water","tag-pretoria","tag-the-city-of-tshwane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881085"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881093,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881085\/revisions\/881093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}