Johannesburg was hardest hit by the outage, which hit Soweto, Langlagti, Southdale, Randburg, Roodepoort, Orange Farm, Ennerdale, South Johannesburg, the Central Business District, and surrounding areas.
- The airlock may be the reason for some delays in the flow of water through Johannesburg.
- This comes 58 hours after it was closed for planned maintenance.
- An air lock is a pocket of air in a pipeline that prevents the flow of water.
Rand Water completed its planned 58-hour maintenance Friday afternoon, but warned that there may be some delays in water flow as a result of airlocks that developed in pipelines during the maintenance process.
An airlock is a pocket of air in a pipeline that prevents water from flowing.
This usually occurs when bubbles collect in the pipeline.
Rand Water said in a statement Saturday that many of the tanks are depleted and it will take several days for them to be fully restored.
Because of the system [having] It had been empty for nearly three days, and it must have had airlocks.”
To mitigate this problem, the system may need to be paused to release it [the] The airlock that was assembled during the maintenance process.
Read | Rand Water systems are back online, but it may take time for water to reach our faucets
Some pipelines needed to be “turned off to release air into the system”.
Rand Water said this intervention will ensure that newly restored pipelines are not damaged by airlocks.
“It is also important to note that Rand Water’s pipes are under severe pressure and for this reason, consumers are being warned of areas near what appears to be pipeline leaks.”
News24 previously reported that it could take up to two weeks for water to flow freely through Johannesburg residents’ taps again.
“When the electricity comes back on after a blackout, one can flick a switch, and the light comes back on almost instantly. On the other hand, water is provided through a long series of pipelines,” the entity said after residents took to social media. Complain.
If the tank becomes low or empty, as most have done during the shutdown, it can sometimes take days and weeks to restore that storage.
During the outage, Randwater said it implemented several projects to ensure it had the capacity to meet the future needs of the municipalities to which it supplies.
The bulk water supplier takes water from the Vaal River Integrated System, purifies it and distributes it to its reservoirs. Municipalities then draw water from these reservoirs to supply residents and businesses.
Closing started at 19:00 on Tuesday.
Johannesburg was hardest hit by the outage, which hit Soweto, Langlagti, Southdale, Randburg, Roodepoort, Orange Farm, Ennerdale, South Johannesburg, the Central Business District, and surrounding areas.
By Thursday evening, there was no water in many areas, especially those provided by the Eikenhof Booster station.
Boosters are pumps that drive water from randwater into the municipal grid.
On Friday afternoon, the entity said that the repairs, which were supposed to be completed at 05:00 that morning, had finally been completed.
It reported water returning in Rosebank, Dunkeld West, Oakden, Kenilworth and parts of Soweto.