Johannesburg residents, living in high lying areas, may experience lower than normal water pressure from Monday 24 June, according to the city.
It attempted to reassure its residents, at a briefing on Friday, that it has contingency plans in place to minimize the impact of next week’s water supply interruptions.
Rand Water, the bulk water supplier for the City of Joburg, announced a major water supply shutdown which is expected to last for 54 hours as planned maintenance of some of its main pipelines will be carried out. During the shutdown, a 2500mm butterfly valve will be installed from Lethabo to Vereeniging pumping station.
Residents must not panic
Johannesburg MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Nico de Jager says residents shouldn’t be alarmed.
“We want to allay all fears addressed. There is no need to panic, there is no need to fill your bottles with water etc. etc. There is no need to do that. Johannesburg Water, with Rand Water sat and came up with a plan to minimize the impact on our residents. All our reservoirs will be full by Monday when this interruption starts, as well as the Rand Water reservoir. Therefore we should have sufficient water to last us for a number of days.”
De Jager added: “If there is an area that will be affected, it will be high lying areas that will be affected first. But at this point and time, I cannot stress this enough, there is no reason to panic.”
The City of Ekurhuleni will also be affected and they anticipate low water pressure in some arrears of the East Rand for the duration of the maintenance and afterwards while the system recovers.
