Water Outage: Tshwane water slowly trickling-in but recovery for all areas to take some time

Water was slowly returning to areas in Pretoria that were affected by dry taps at the weekend and earlier this week, the Tshwane metro announced on Wednesday.

Rand Water on Tuesday afternoon announced the resumption of water pumping at full capacity to its Mapleton booster station in Ekurhuleni. The booster station suffered low levels of water due to Eskom’s transformer that tripped on Friday, leading to water supply to Tshwane Vlakfontein reservoir running low and leaving several suburbs without water.

Rand Water spokesperson Justice Mohale said although the booster station was pumping water at full capacity, the recovery of the system would take some time as most of the reservoirs levels were very low on Tuesday afternoon.

“Some customers in the high lying areas might not all get water immediately as the system has been badly depleted,” he said.

Tshwane metro MMC responsible for water and electricity, Phillip Nel said reservoir levels were recovering on Wednesday morning.

“As committed last night (Tuesday), we are happy to announce that the city of Tshwane is receiving water into our affected reservoirs from Rand Water and our reservoir levels have started recovering,” he said.

“Some areas already have water, while it is expected that water supply to all areas will be restored gradually as reservoir levels improve.”

“Residents are urged to use water sparingly during this period in order for the city’s reservoir levels to improve speedily. The city would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused and thanks residents for their understanding and patience.”

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Department’s spokesperson Stephen Moore said if all went well all areas might get water soon as the system recovered.

“The system is complicated and is affected by several factors. It is usually harder for high lying areas to get supply during recovery if the low lying areas use a lot of water. We would like to urge our residents to use water sparingly during this time for everyone to get water.”

Ward councillor in the east of Pretoria Siobhan Muller said several residents reported water started returning on Wednesday.

“I have reports in Ashlea Gardens, Newlands and Waterkloof of water returning. Pressure still needs to build up but we’re getting there,” she said.

Muller said during the water outage residents received water from different social stakeholders.

“The residents with boreholes have been fantastic. When we asked for assistance for water they stepped up. So did some businesses. Spar Waterkloof for example, sold drinking water at R1 a litre. This has been such a positive experience during very negative circumstance.”

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