Rand Water fails to secure backup electricity supply leaving many Johannesburg residents without water
11 June 2023
Rand Water is once again failing our residents in Gauteng. Large parts of Johannesburg have been left without water for a up to a week. The latest round of outages and the failure at the Orlando substation is evidence that Rand Water is failing to ensure an interrupted water supply. The problem is two fold, Rand Water not maintaining its electrical infrastructure and secondly the need to replace old asbestos pipes that is beyond its useful lifespan.
Earlier this year, Rand Water indicated that they would have their own generators at pumping stations like Eikenhof by June. To date, there are no generators. Rand Water has gone silent on the matter. It is common knowledge that there are problems with electricity and that load-shedding is not going to go away. We cannot only blame Eskom when Rand Water does not maintain its electrical infrastructure.
It is the responsibility of Rand Water to deliver water to our residents. Where City Power fails to deliver electricity, it is then the responsibility of Rand Water to make sure that they have the capacity to produce electricity themselves through a generator.
In this case, we cannot blame Eskom when Rand Water’s infrastructure is failing. Residents are now going for weeks without water, and this is unacceptable. Our councillors are inundated with calls because our residents are frustrated with the situation.
Pipe bursts will become common if the old asbestos pipes are not replaced. There is a medium-term solution to this, where the outflow to the reticulation system is reduced as part of Pressure Demand Management (PDM) and outflow during off-peak times. This would be between 10 pm and 5 am. If this flow is restricted, the pressure inside the pipes will become less.
The DA will continue to push for part of the R28 billion investment for water infrastructure in the province to be used to for the replacement and upgrade of critical water infrastructure in municipalities.
Issued by Nico De Jager, DA Gauteng Spokesperson for Infrastructure Development, 11 June 2023
