Johannesburg - Residents of Johannesburg and parts of Pretoria are facing a water crisis, which has left many frustrated.
Some areas under the City of Johannesburg experienced water shortages for almost two weeks.
City of Joburg mayor Thapelo Amad expressed concern over the outages, and said he, too, was affected.
Speaking to IOL on Wednesday, Zubair Patel, the chairperson of the southern suburbs community forum, said they were recently in a meeting with Joburg Water, where it was explained to them that the reason for the low water supply was that the city was getting insufficient water supply from Rand Water.
"Due to the insufficient supply of water, the system is unable to provide enough water to filter through to all the affected streets," Patel said.
Yesterday, Johannesburg Water announced that it will be providing 18 water tankers to heavily affected areas around the city.
The entity said its systems had been struggling to recover from a pump failure at Rand Water’s Eikenhof pump station earlier this week.
"On a positive note, Rand Water managed to repair the air valve that was vandalised on Wednesday. As a result, pumping at the Yeoville reservoir resumed just before 8am yesterday, and by mid-morning, the water levels were sitting at 5.73m. The reservoir currently has two pumps operating, and water supply to high-lying areas should start improving by the afternoon," said Johannesburg Water.
The entity said the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital's water levels were full, while the Helen Joseph Hospital system was at 75%, and the water flow into the hospital remained strong.
The entity said most systems, such as Eagles Nest, Alan Manor, and Naturena, were showing steady improvement while the Commando system (which comprises the Brixton, Crosby, and Hursthill reservoirs and towers) remained the same as yesterday, but was at least not deteriorating.
Johannesburg Water said the Hursthill 2 and Brixton reservoirs were still critical.
"Because the Weltevredenpark reservoir is recovering, it is currently 62.35% full. This will help sustain water levels at the Waterval 2 reservoir, which feeds into the Commando system.
"If there are no unplanned interruptions to the system overnight, then there should be improved water levels by Friday," said the entity.
The entity said the Cosmo City reservoir (which was currently at 2.02m) inlet was closed overnight and opened at 7.30am yesterday morning to assist Honeydew and Boschkop.
"Ten mobile water trucks have been provided for the Honeydew and Boshkop areas. The Crown Gardens reservoir is currently sitting at 0.92m, tower 1 is at 2.01m, and tower 2 is at 1.81m, making the levels critical at this stage. Inflow suddenly stopped on Wednesday afternoon.
"Technicians are investigating the reasons for this. Alternative water supplies will be provided. Johannesburg Water technical teams continue to monitor the system, and further updates will be provided to customers," said the entity.
Amad said the city continued to experience significant service delivery breakdowns, exacerbated by the country-wide electricity crisis.
"These issues remain high on my agenda, and I will continue to work with my mayoral committee and city administrators to find sustainable, long-term solutions to the infrastructure problems plaguing our city," Amad said.
Last month, Amad announced that the city, through Joburg Water, had invested just over R400 million, which would be used over the next 18 months to build and upgrade bulk water infrastructure, especially along the Commando system (Crosby and Brixton), which was always the hardest hit by water shortages.
The City of Tshwane said it was experiencing low water pressure and/or no water problems in Thatchfield Ridge, Centurion, south of the city.
The area is supplied with water from the Kosmosdal meter, which gets water from Rand Water.
City spokesperson Selby Bokaba said both Rand Water and the city had investigated their water supply systems and were struggling to identify the cause of the slight drop in pressure within the system.
"Both the city and the water utility are frantically continuing with investigations, including identifying illegal connections that may be the cause of the problem," Bokaba said.
He said residents in the Thatchfield and Olievenhoutbosch areas were requested to reduce their water usage.
The Star