- The Executive Mayor of Johannesburg has joined a supervisory visit to the Helen Joseph Hospital to ensure the water is safe to drink.
- Areas of Johannesburg are already experiencing low or no water pressure on the second day of the Rand water outage.
- The mayor said the hospital would likely have to resort to using water tankers during a Rand water outage.
With a smack of the lips, Mayor of Johannesburg Kapello Guamanda accepted the sip of water that was given to him at the Helen Joseph Hospital.
“It tastes like it was made by me,” he joked.
On Wednesday, Guamanda surprised staff and patients at General Hospital when he joined a water stewardship visit in Johannesburg.
He, along with Environment and Infrastructure Services MMC Jack Sekwaila, and Johannesburg Water MD Ntshavheni Mukwevho visited areas that are provided by water tankers.
This comes through Major water outage for 58 hours Where Rand Water will complete maintenance of the main pipelines that feed most of the city.
Helen Joseph and the surrounding areas constantly suffer from water problems. Outages have increased in the past few months, mainly due to the Randwater power outage.
Outages in the water supply can take days before the system recovers, and areas such as the inner city and surrounding areas suffer the most.
These are the densely populated areas that use water infrastructure that needs improvement for the growing numbers, and where there are multi-level buildings on the hills of the city. When the power goes out, the tanks empty as consumers continue to use the water.
This creates low pressure – those who live at the top of the hill struggle to get water, and those who have water keep using it.
In the coming days, much of the city may go through this cycle.
Read | Joburg residents panic buy water and storage containers before the 58 hour water outage
Helen Joseph has a water storage on her roof.
On the observation visit, the unit was given a demonstration of how water tankers pumped water to the surface so that gravity could supply the hospital during a power outage.
Guamanda was then shown to the dialysis unit to see first-hand the water flowing from the taps.
Busisiwe Ndlovu, director of the unit, told News24 that water is essential for dialysis patients. The staff was excited to greet the mayor, who stood at the entrance to the unit as patients stared at the flashing cameras.
“I want to have a cup.
He said he wanted to show the city that the water was safe to drink.
“If it’s not like that, at least I’m in the hospital,” he joked.
He drank from a cup hurriedly sought by a staff member – after rinsing it well under the water tap. Guamanda was happy that the faucet had pressure and said he was confident the hospital would not have any problems during the outage.
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Meanwhile, as the Rand’s water outage enters its second day, aphids and the surrounding area are already suffering from low water pressure.
These areas are supported by the Eikenhof Booster Station, which receives water from Rand Water and pumps it to areas in Randburg, Roodepoort, Soweto, Langlagte and Southdale, from where it is distributed to surrounding areas covering most of the city.
Johannesburg Water, which buys large quantities of water from Rand Water for distribution to the city, reported Wednesday morning that the Honeydew reservoir and tower were at low levels.
Ward 134 councilor Devon Steenkamp reported that Sundowner was already experiencing low water pressure with no water in some areas.
In Soweto, the Gauteng Roads and Transportation Department announced that the Mapunya Mall Licensing Center will be closed on Wednesday and will be closed on Thursday due to “anticipated unavailability of water.” Some Soweto residents say their water was cut off on Tuesday night after Rand Water started maintenance at 19:00.
Mukwevho said areas the Daleside Booster Station supported, such as Orange Farm, Ennerdale and Drieziek, are already recovering.
Work on this line started at 19:00 on Tuesday and ended in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Joburg Water said it would take about 24 hours for the water supply to fully recover.
From left: Johannesburg Water MD, Ntshavheni Mukwevho, Executive Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda, and MMC for the Department of Environment and Infrastructure Services, Jack Sekwaila, at an inspection of water tankers in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Alex Patrick/News24
This concludes that the first thing Mukwevho said was basically three shutdowns.
The Zwartkopjes Booster Station is scheduled to go live at 19:00 on Wednesday, and it should take about five days for the system to recover.
He said the greater Randburg area would be hardest hit. This area is provided by the Eikenhof, which will have water on Fridays at 05:00.
Full recovery of this system may take about two weeks. The areas provided by Eikenhof are already seeing the result of outages, as many areas have started outages as water levels drop in tanks and towers.
For this reason, the medical director said, Joburg Water was sending most of the water tankers to areas provided by Eikenhof.