Intervention needed to prevent further water crises in Ward 56

The residents supplied by the Forest Hill water tower experienced a water outage that lasted for several hours on April 7.

The reason for this outage was Rand Water Zwartkoppies pumping station, which supplies the Forest Hill water tower, experienced a power failure that Eskom had to resolve.

Ward 56 Clr Michael Crichton said this had a similar ring to the 55-day water outage that residents experienced who were supplied by the South Hills water tower. This was largely due to issues at Rand Waters Zuikerbosch pumping station.

“This means there is a need for collaboration between the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) and the national government to resolve these water issues as it affected Johannesburg Water (a CoJ entity) and Rand Water (a national government entity).

“However, what is unacceptable is that while Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda stated at the last council meeting that the residents are consuming too much water, Johannesburg Water has been extremely negligent in allowing many water leaks to go unattended for months.

“In times where the ward, the CoJ, the province and the country face a water crisis, one would think that attending to burst pipes and water leaks would be on top of the city’s agenda. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case as there are leaks that have gone unattended for months,” he said.

Some of the leaks:

• Corner Elizabeth Avenue and Augusta Road, Linmeyer: reference number 404464332

• Outside 2 East Road, The Hill: reference number 404688159

• Outside 10 Fransch Hoek Road, Oakdene: reference number 404619402

• Outside 7 Friars Hill Road, The Hill

• Corner Ranier Road and Olympus Road, The Hill: reference number 404655843.

Crichton said these are a few examples of water leaks that have been reported but left unattended.

“What makes this situation more absurd is the fact that not only have calls been logged and escalated to Johannesburg Water for these issues to be resolved, but I have also personally taken Joburg water officials and officials from the city’s Citizen Relationship and Urban Management (CRUM) department to the sites of these leaks.

“They have made notes and taken pictures of these issues, yet they still go unattended. What is also of concern is that in the last financial year, money was allocated to upgrade the Forest Hill water tower. However, we are already embarking on a new financial year and we are yet to see any work taking place at the Forest Hill water tower.

“In response to this, I am running a petition to resolve these water issues within the ward. I will also continue to ask questions to Jack Sekwaila, the MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services (EISD) about this in council and will continue to demand that these issues get attended to at the councillor forum meetings,” noted Crichton.

Joburg Water confirmed they will revert to the publication once they receive feedback on all the reference numbers provided.