The City of Johannesburg has confirmed further improvements in the water supply to the Erand, Diepsloot, Rabie Ridge, and President Park reservoirs, as well as the Diepsloot reservoir. However, the Grand Central reservoir remains affected.

On February 3, the executive mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Dada Morero, along with deputy minister of Water and Sanitation David Mahlobo, the MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services Jack Sekwaila, and other officials, held a media briefing at the Johannesburg Water Midrand depot in Carlswald to update the public on the ongoing water supply challenges affecting parts of Midrand and other areas in Gauteng.

Read more: Midrand residents protest ongoing water crisis

Reservoir outlets have been opened in a controlled manner to support system recovery, allowing low-lying areas to receive water. As reservoir levels gradually improve and the system stabilises, supply will progressively extend to higher-lying areas.

Currently, the Grand Central reservoir remains impacted by low inflow levels. Although reservoir levels are gradually rising, they are still insufficient to provide a sustained water supply to all dependent areas. The management of this reservoir will remain a priority as part of the overall system recovery process.

@caxtonjoburgnorth WATCH: Executive mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Dada Morero, joined by other officials, as he gives updates on the Midrand water system and Deputy minister of Water and Sanitation David Mahlobo explain the cause of water outages in Midrand and some parts of Gauteng. Video: Comfort Makhanya #midrand #water ♬ original sound – Caxton Joburg North

“Reservoirs have significantly improved,” said Morero. ”Meaning that I think a few of them have started supplying water in the area. All this except for Grand Central. It’s not covered at a point at which it is able to then supply water in the area. So we will isolate Grand Central from the rest of the four reservoirs…

Also read: Midrand water supply stabilises following Rand Water maintenance

“Grand Central, we’re still working on it, monitoring it. It has not reached the percentage or the levels that we wanted to reach.”
He added that the city was building four new reservoirs and three towers to increase capacity.
These challenges have arisen from a series of incidents within the Rand Water bulk supply system over the past week, which have directly impacted Johannesburg Water’s Midrand network:

On January 26, Rand Water notified Johannesburg Water of emergency repairs at the Palmiet pump station, necessitating the isolation and repair of critical pump infrastructure. Although the repairs were initially expected to be completed quickly, technical and operational delays prolonged the process.

On January 27, a power trip occurred at Rand Water’s Zuikerbosch treatment plant, further affecting the Eikenhof and Zwartkoppies supply systems. Although partial pumping capacity was restored afterwards, these incidents significantly reduced the water volume supplied to the Palmiet system.

On January 31, an additional power failure occurred at the Palmiet pump station, further destabilising the system. These cumulative incidents resulted in critically low levels at the Klipfontein reservoir, which supplies Johannesburg Water’s Midrand system. On February 1, a leak was identified at the Klipfontein reservoir, with repairs completed and commissioning finalised on February 2.

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