Rand Water says it has successfully completed a planned 58-hour maintenance project in Johannesburg that began on Tuesday, but isn’t celebrating yet.
“Many of the tanks are depleted and it will take several days for them to be fully restored. Since the system has been empty for nearly three days, it must have airlocks in it. To mitigate this problem, the system may require a temporary shutdown to free the airlocks that have resulted during the maintenance process,” the entity said on Saturday.
“Simply put, there is a need for the water utility to turn off some of the pipelines to release air into the system. This intervention will help ensure that newly restored pipelines are not damaged by an airlock.
“Randwater’s pipelines are under severe pressure and consumers are being warned to avoid areas near what appear to be leaking pipelines as they could lead to injuries or deaths,” said Randwater.
TimesLIVE