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Joburg Water shutting ‘critical meters’ at night to save water
Gauteng has been hit hard by a water crisis.
Joburg Water will be shutting down reservoir flows. Image: iStock
Joburg Water has ramped up water restriction measures to fill its reservoirs, including throttling and closing “critical meters” overnight.
Gauteng has been hit hard by a water crisis, with areas in Johannesburg, such as South Hills, Robertsham, Melville, Emmerentia, Crosby, Mayfair, Vrededorp currently experiencing little or no water.
Senior Networks Manager Logan Munsamy said the city’s water systems were “showing signs of recovery and in a positive direction” but some remained critical.
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To make sure the taps keep running, Munsamy said Joburg Water would throttle or close “critical meters” across the city at night to build water storage volumes.
How will throttling work?
“We have identified a series of critical meters in the Johannesburg water system that we close at 9pm every night until 4am.
“The reason we close this is to limit the outflow from our reservoirs so it can build up capacity to provide water for residents during the day.”
He announced meters in Orange Farm and Eikenhof would be added to those restricted during these hours.
He said while some meters would be throttled, others would be completely closed.
“The valve on these critical meters will be partially closed, not fully, so there is a degree of water that goes into the area. The reason we do this is because if you fully close the valve you introduce air, which can cause bursts and it takes time to bleed the air out the system.
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“There are some systems that we need to fully close because if we do not, we will not build up sufficient storage overnight to feed during the day. In those cases, we have teams available to monitor”.
Air in the system wreaking havoc
Among these critical was the Commando Road system, which feeds Crosby, Hursthill and Brixton reservoirs, were water levels are at between 5% and 46%.
Munsamy said residents in Robertsham and other areas on the Crown Gardens reservoir were struggling with water, with air pockets suspected to be the cause. Southgate and other areas were also impacted by low levels at the reservoir but this was improving.
Munsamy said monitoring the water system week-on-week showed notable improvement.
Joburg Water said it was hoping to reach levels between 55 and 65% of total volume, to be “comfortable”.
