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City of Johannesburg Media Statement by MMC Jack Sekwaila

26 March 2023

Executive Mayor 

Johannesburg Water MD 

Members of the media 

Residents of Joburg 

I greet you. 

We are here today to speak to the residents of the City of Johannesburg about the water challenges the City has experienced in the past few weeks and to provide an update on the progress we are making.

The Executive Mayor, Cllr Thapelo Amad requested me to join him today, in order to reassure the residents that the leadership of the City of Johannesburg is taking this matter seriously, and regard it as a high priority, to ensure water flows uninterrupted to the taps of our residents across the City.

But more importantly, I also requested the MD of Johannesburg Water to join so that collectively we can give residents hope that full water supply is restored

Ladies and Gentlemen

Johannesburg Water’s system has been under immense pressure in the past 10 weeks due to Rand Water experiencing various failures on its bulk infrastructure.

The City of Johannesburg is supplied from the Eikenhof, Zwartkopjes and Palmiet booster stations which were affected by frequent, power failures, vandalism to its infrastructure, and planned infrastructure maintenance work which contributed to the low or empty supply of water in various areas across the City.

Eikenhof which supplies portions of the South of Johannesburg, West of Johannesburg, Randburg, Roodepoort and Soweto was affected by frequent power failures. Zwartkopjes which supplies the Central and Northern parts of Johannesburg was affected by vandalism and power failure. Palmiet which supplies portions of the South of Johannesburg, East of Johannesburg, Sandton, Midrand and Diepsloot was affected by frequent power failures and vandalism incidents.

We have noted with great concern and sympathy the mounting frustrations from our residents, and we would like to take this opportunity to profusely apologise for the disruption to their daily lives and the inconvenience this has caused. The delivery of good quality water and sanitation services, which should be accessible to all, remains our main priority to the residents of Johannesburg

Johannesburg Water is working hard to get our water systems back on track and to stabilise the system. We will continue to supply residents with water via mobile water tankers and stationary tanks located in various strategic areas. The aim is to prioritise medical facilities, schools, old age homes and then residential areas. Currently, we have deployed 28 roaming water tankers, and 12 stationary water tankers to areas affected by the Eikenhof system pump failure, which are Robertsham, Boysens, Crosby, Melville, and Crown Garden Clinic to name a few.

We are working closely with ward councillors in all affected area to assist us to identify central area where we can deploy our stationary tankers and roaming tankers.

In order to recover the system faster Johannesburg Water is busy appointing contractors to assist with a project to link the Hurst Hill One reservoir zone with the Northcliff Reservoir inlet pipework to boost supply into Hurst Hill One. Work to commence on 27 March 2023.

Johannesburg Water is also in the process to upgrade the main water supply into Jan Hofmeyer which forms part of the Brixton System after it was discovered that the pipe diameter had restrictions in certain sections. Work to be completed 27 March 2023.

We have also engaged our colleagues at City Power to grant us some reprieve from loadshedding in areas that have Johannesburg water system networks. This will provide us with an opportunity to commence with repairs and work through delivering uninterrupted water supply to residents. We will also be approaching Eskom on the same request in the next coming days.

As mentioned earlier, the past 10 weeks have been challenging. Johannesburg Water Brixton, Crosby and Hurst Hill 1 & 2 reservoir complexes which are supplied by the Rand Water Commando Road bulk meter and supplemented with supply from the Rand Water Stafford bulk meter were first affected by the flow rate from the Rand Water Commando meter which dropped below the 2 500kl/hour from 13 January 2023. This resulted in the reservoir complexes running at low capacities and not being able to supply water in wards 58, 69, 86 and 87. Some of the areas include Rahima Moosa and Helen Joseph Hospitals and the University of Johannesburg.

Also on the same day, there were power failures that affected the Rand Water Zuikerbosch purification plant which resulted in the plant only operating at 60% capacity, and the Rand Water Eikenhof pump station was also affected by a power failure.

These events affected the Johannesburg Water Commando system which supplies the Crosby, Brixton and Hurst Hill 1 and 2 reservoirs. The high-laying areas supplied by Hurst Hill 2 were affected and resulted in intermittent water supply in the areas of Melville, Parktown and Auckland Park.

The above events with higher-than-normal temperatures then resulted in Rand Water storage capacity dropping to 30% and some reservoirs supplying municipalities dropping to below 15%. In the case of Johannesburg, the Rand Water Waterval Reservoirs were below 15% and affected the water supply into the Commando system.

On 29 January 2023, Rand Water again experienced a power failure at their Eikenhof pump station. This incident caused the Rand Water Waterval as well as Meredale Reservoirs supplying the City of Johannesburg’s western and southern areas, Randburg and Roodepoort to drop to zero storage capacity until power was restored the following day.

From 13 February to 17 February 2023, the Johannesburg Water Crosby pump station had a pump failure which resulted in the station only pumping at 50% capacity to the Brixton reservoir and tower.

From 25 February to 26 February 2023, Rand Water experienced problems with their filters at the Vereeniging purification works which led to the reduction of 200 Ml/day pumping capacity at their Eikenhof pump station which affected the levels of their Meredale and Waterval Reservoirs.

On March 1st, 8th and 11th Rand Water experience power failures at their Zuikerbosh and Vereeniging purification works impacting 50% of their pumping capacity at their Eikenhof pump station which then affect the water supply to their Meredale and Waterval reservoirs.

This week, on 20 March 2023, Rand Water experienced a power supply problem at their Vereeniging purification works impacting their ability to supply water to their Eikenhof pump station, and affecting the Rand Water Meredale and Waterval reservoirs.

Thereafter, on 21 March 2023, Rand Water experienced a pump trip at their Eikenhof pump station affecting the pumping output by 200 Ml/day, therefore affecting supply to their Meredale and Waterval reservoirs.

Due to the aforementioned incidents, the Crosby, Brixton and Hurst Hill Systems in the West of Johannesburg, Linden One Reservoir and Tower, Honeydew Reservoir and Boshkop Reservoir in Randburg, Waterval, Quellerina, Constantia, Helderkruin towers and Helderkruin Reservoir in Roodepoort were at critically low levels or empty. This affected the supply areas of these reservoirs and towers as residents experienced poor pressure or no water supply.

With regard to the Palmiet System Configuration, the February vandalism incident and power failure in March contributed to the low capacity in various areas. Due to these aforementioned incidents, the South Hills Tower in the South of Johannesburg, Alexandra Park, Linksfield and Randjeslaagte Reservoirs in the East of Johannesburg, President Park Reservoir and Tower, Rabie Ridge Reservoir and Tower and Grand Central Tower in Midrand were at critically low levels or at empty.

This affected the supply areas of these reservoirs and towers as residents experienced poor pressure or no water supply up to 27 February 2023, with the exception of Alexander Park, which only recovered from 04 March 2023 and The South Hills tower which was only back at consisted water supply form 18 March 2023.

The Zwartkopjes pupm station could not always pump at full capacity due to frequent power failure in February and March. The Crown Gardens reservoir was also affected over the past two weeks but especially due to the vandalism incident which resulted in no flows into the reservoir and towers for two days.

The reservoir and towers are currently being recovered in that pumping into the towers commenced again on 25 March 2023 and the reservoir was opened at 50%. The area of Robertsham, Ormonde and surrounding areas were the most affected.

Johannesburg Water has a dedicated team that will regularly inspect and crack down on illegal connections in order to deal with theft and loss of assets 

While we continue to deal with these challenges and ensure taps do not run dry, let us ensure that we conserve water in our communities, and also report irresponsible usage of water and illegal connections

Johannesburg Water will implement the following medium term measures (over the next 2 years) within the Commando Supply System to ensure sustainability of the water supply – R402 million investment

1.   Brixton Reservoir, Tower and Pump station + Crosby Reconfiguration: Construction of a new Brixton Reservoir (22 Ml) and Tower (1.4 Ml) with associated pipe work. Contractor was appointed in December 2022. Work will commence in May 2023 for 18 months at the cost of R292 million

2.    Rand Supply line: New connection from Rand Water to supplement supply to Crosby Reservoir with the associated 1m diameter bulk supply main. The project will commence in July 2023 for the duration of 14 months and will cost R80 million.

3.    New Crosby Pump station and rising mains: Install a standby generator at Crosby reservoir to mitigate load shedding and improve pump efficiency to Brixton Reservoir, including construction of a new booster pump station to supplement water supply to Hurst Hill reservoir from the Crosby Reservoir with associated pipe work. The project will commerce in August 2023 for the duration of 12 months and will cost 30 million

Johannesburg Water will also invest in the following programme:

1.    Reservoir storage upgrades

2.    Water Pipe replacement in various regions

3.    Water Conservation & Water Demand Management which will include repairs of leaking reservoirs and tower infrastructure. The WC/WDM strategy aims to reduce demand by 37 123 Ml per annum from the technical interventions. Water Conservation initiatives will contribute with further demand reduction.

4.    Bulk pipe renewal/ upgrades

Johannesburg Water continues to have a big task of supplying 1.6 billion litres of potable water per day, procured from Rand Water through a water distribution network of 12 369 km, 128 reservoirs and water towers, and 37 water pump stations. We want our operations to normalise and fulfil this mandate. We are here to serve you the residents of Johannesburg.

I thank you.