By: Natasha Archary
Rand Water says repair work on a number of its water facilities has been complete but warn residents in affected areas that water recovery could take up to 14-days.
On Tuesday, 11 July, Rand Water conducted a 58-hour planned maintenance at it Vereeniging water treatment plant, Eikenhof booster pumping station and Zuikerbosch water treatment plant.
This resulted in the widespread complete shutdown of water supply to large parts of Johannesburg including, Lenasia, Soweto, Roodepoort, Randburg, Rosebank, Northcliff and Emmerentia.
Repair work was scheduled to be complete at 05h00 on Friday, 14 July, however Rand Water said in a statement on Friday that a total recovery of its systems could take longer, if its reservoirs and water pumping systems remain low.
“Although work has been completed, Johannesburg Water customers are reminded that full recovery will take 5 to 14 days.
To give context into the water recovery process, water is not like electricity. When power comes back after a power failure, one can hit a switch and the light comes back on almost immediately.
Water, on the other hand, is supplied through a long series of pipelines. If a reservoir goes low or empty, as majority of them did during the shutdown, it can sometimes take days, and even weeks to recover that storage.”
Rand Water
As much as work was completed on time, Rand Water said there were some challenges in carrying out the repair work, but the Hursthill, Brixton and Crosby systems will likely improve.
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