Rand Water shutdown: Free Water now sold for R20

The Rand Water shutdown has prompted ‘entrepreneurship’ among some Joburgers who are now finding fortune in selling water to households desperate for water.

JOHANNESBURG WATER INTERVENTION SUFFICIENT?

While Johannesburg Water has provided 149 additional stationary tanks and 65 water trucks across the city to mitigate the shortage of water, this has proven to be not enough as many residents still battled to locate a water station or once located tanks are dry.

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To further mitigate the problem, a Facebook user has advertised that he sells 20-litre bucket of water for R20. To make this his business even more interesting is that he delivers the water for free around Cosmo City.

RAND WATER CONFIRMS REPAIR COMPLETION

Although the user might be making a quick buck, his business won’t be lasting long as the 3-day Rand Water shutdown comes to an end today.
With Rand Water announcing the completion of repair work, Johannesburg Water confirmed that systems were gradually recovering.

“The repairs that were conducted during the planned Rand Water shutdown, from Tuesday, 11 July at 19:00, to Friday morning at 05:00, have been completed and Johannesburg Water systems are gradually recovering.”

Johannesburg Water

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SYSTEM CHALLENGES AMID RECOVERY

Residents in some areas have confirmed that water is gradually returning to their systems, particularly in Rosebank, Dunkeld West, Oakdene, Kenilworth, and parts of Soweto, Johannesburg Water updated.

As this was one of the biggest planned maintenance shutdowns, there were challenges experienced as expected of operations of this magnitude. Some of the major issues which impacted Johannesburg Water systems are as follows:

• The Zwartkopjes repairs, which were supposed to take 24 hours, were only completed at 01:00 on Thursday, 13 July, as opposed to 19:00 on Wednesday, 12 July.
• There was no continuous pumping of the 24% of water at the Eikenhof Booster Station that was supposed to take place throughout the shutdown. There was no pumping on Wednesday night, resulting in Soweto and Lenasia systems being critically low to empty. By Thursday, the Eikenhof system was empty.
• The entity did not get the 300 megalitres of extra water pumping into Johannesburg Water systems as promised by the bulk supplier.

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“Although work has been completed, Johannesburg Water customers are reminded that full recovery will take five to 14 days,” the entity said.

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