Rand Water blames Makause for water interruptions

The recent water disruptions in Wards 36 and 92 are allegedly the fault of residents of the Makause informal settlement, according to Rand Water.

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The service provider has provided some insight into the reasons behind the two-day water interruptions.

On March 9, the ward councillors went to Rand Water to deliver a petition since there were still water outages in their wards. They were accompanied by locals.

On March 8, Rand Water experienced a power outage at the Zuikerbosch water treatment facility, which also caused an interruption in the distribution of water.

This led to water supply interruptions in the impacted areas including Germiston and the Northridge station.

Following the handover of the petition, Rand Water spokesperson Makenosi Maroo said after once water supply was restored at the Palmiet system, residents of Makause informal settlement vandalised the air valves on the J5, J6 and J10 pipelines to abstract water at those points. As a result, this affected the supply to Primrose and Germiston reservoirs.

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“Due to the vandalism of J5, J6 and J10 pipelines, airlocks occurred in the system. Air valves are installed to assist with the release of air in the system. Rand Water team had to bleed the system to clear the airlocks.

“The system took time to recover after that incident. There are no more difficulties in the Rand Water system at Germiston,” said Maroo.

“Makause informal settlement encroached on the Rand Water servitude. The challenges that Rand Water experience is vehicles and machinery cannot move freely in the area when pipeline patrols had to be conducted and major repairs done on the pipelines,” said Maroo.

Maroo added that this is not only dangerous but also interferes with the utility’s ability to perform its functions optimally.

“Rand water managed to repair the vandalised air valves and residents of Makause were made aware of this.

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“Rand Water is not primarily affected by load-shedding at the pumping stations and primary booster stations.

“The water utility is only affected at the tertiary booster stations as they share a common supply with residential areas,” said Maroo.

Maroo further emphasised that Rand Water is not required to construct a reservoir at Churchill, rather the municipality must carry out this work since it is in charge of providing water to its citizens.

“Rand Water only provides municipalities with services, it does not directly supply structures like reservoirs,” Maroo concluded.