WATCH: Johannesburg Water Commando System explained
The commando system comprises four reservoirs, one tower and two pump stations.
Johannesburg Water (JW) technicians on May 10 provided a first-hand experience to the media on how its commando system functions.
It is about getting the water from their bulk supply Rand Water and how it moves within their systems until it reaches the residents’ taps.
Gugulethu Quma (operations manager of networks electromechanical), Mandla Keswa (operations manager mechanical) and Donald Gordon (operations manager electrical) took the media through the three complexes which form the system – Hursthill 1 and 2, Crosby and Brixton.
Quma said the system is in Region F in the City of Johannesburg. It is supplied via the Rand Water network that comes from the Eikenhof pump station. “The main reservoir is called Crosby and is bigger in terms of the size of all reservoirs in the system. We have Hurstill 1 and 2, further down and Brixton reservoir with a tower.
“Crosby reservoir supplies through gravity and to various customers such as the Helen Joseph Hospital. The Brixton reservoir feeds Garden City Hospital.
“Crosby has a pump station which is very crucial in the JW operation and specifically the network of the commando system. It has the single pump station that supplies Crosby reservoir,” he said.
The team also touched on vandalism. They said it has dire consequences for the system.
“Theft and vandalism crippled the progress made in the system. Although we have mechanisms to safeguard the integrity of the system, we cannot at times keep up with vandalism and theft,” noted Quma.
One of the key mandates of JW is the provision of water and sanitation services to its residents. The entity provides water and sanitation services to areas across Johannesburg, stretching from as far as Orange Farm in the south to Midrand in the north, Roodepoort in the west, and Alexandra in the east.
The 1.6 billion litres of potable water JW supplies daily, which is procured from the bulk supplier RW, are distributed through a network of water infrastructure consisting of 129 reservoirs and water towers.
The commando system is part of the network. It derives its name from where the RW supply meter is located, which is on Commando and Main Reef roads, Industria.
The system comprises four reservoirs, one tower and two pump stations, namely:
• Crosby reservoir (stores 46 megalitres)
• Crosby pump station
• Hursthill Reservoir 1 (stores 22.7 megalitres)
• Hursthill Reservoir 2 (stores 22.7 megalitres)
• Brixton reservoir (stores 22.7 megalitres)
• Brixton pump station
• Brixton Tower (stores 1.1 megalitres)
Commando supplies water to parts of Region B (including Northcliff, Melville, Auckland Park, Bordeaux and Bryanston extensions) and Region F (including Johannesburg CBD, City Deep, Robertsham, Linmeyer, Fordsburg, Kibler Park, Mulbarton and the universities of Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand).
It also supplies three hospitals – Rahima Moosa Mother and Child, Helen Joseph and Garden City.
Fast facts:
• The reservoirs are interdependent (they rely on each other for water. If one has no supply, the other will not supply the other).
• The system requires a minimum flow rate of 2 500 litres per second at Commando Meter for the system to be stable.
• Crosby reservoir feeds the gravity zone (the area on the outlet of the reservoir like Langlaagte and Industria) and pumps into the Brixton reservoir.
• Brixton reservoir feeds the gravity zone (Brixton, Mayfair, Hursthill, Jan Hofmeyer) and high-lying areas (Melville, Auckland Park) through the tower.
Recently, JW completed urgent interventions to improve and secure a steady water supply to the struggling commando system.
This was part of the entity’s urgent interventions to improve the poor water supply linking the Hursthill 1 reservoir to the Northcliff reservoir. They completed the project in April.
