WATCH: Joburg Water working on minimising the impact of the recent challenges
The City needs to raise R100bn to replace the ageing infrastructure.
The Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Dada Morero, together with the managing director and CEO of Joburg Water and City Power updated the media on the proposed interventions to address water challenges experienced in some parts of the city on October 18.
Speaking during the briefing, the MD for Joburg Water Ntshavheni Mukwebo explained that on September 23 Rand Water experienced a power failure at their Vereeniging water works.
This resulted in a 50% reduction in the bulk water supply to their Eikenhof pump station.
“This failure happened in the early hours of the morning and was resolved at midday on the same day. Since the Eikenhof system, especially the supply to Commando Road, was vulnerable there was a negative impact on the Crosby, Brixton and Hurst Hill supply zones resulting in water supply interruptions to the high-laying areas.
“After the issue was resolved on September 23, the system started to recover but for it to recover fully takes about four to five days,” he said.
He explained that on September 25 just after midnight there was a total power failure at the Rand Water Vereeniging works. This failure was resolved after six hours by Rand Water.
On September 29, Rand Water experienced a pump trip at their Eikenhof system for about three hours. This reduced the pump station capacity by 40%. Again, the Commando system was negatively affected as it was already vulnerable due to previous incidents. Thus, again the gains made were negatively affected.
On September 30 in the early hours of the morning, Rand Water experienced a power supply issue with their Zuikerbosh purification works. This had a 60% impact on the supply to Eikenhof for about five to six hours.
“On October 3 in the evening, Rand Water took 200Ml/day supply from the Eikenhof system to boost their Palmiet system, which was at a critical stage. This load shift affected our Commando Road supply meter and some of the reservoirs in the south of Johannesburg. The impact was that all the gains made to stabilise the system following the September 30 incident were lost,” he said.
He explained that an agreement was reached that the Commando supply will be prioritised. He explained that as of October 18, with the bulk supplier having supplied the required volumes for this area, the entity has started seeing signs of improvement.
Johannesburg Water will in the next three years invest R340m to expand the Commando system’s scope and infrastructure to ensure continuous water supply to the residents of the City of Johannesburg.
“We are working with all relevant stakeholders, including Rand Water and City Power to minimise the impact of the recent challenges,” he said.
Speaking at the same media briefing, City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava explained that the Eikenhof substation, which supplies Rand Water, is supplied power from the bulk station in Fordsburg via a switching station in Orlando.
“It is inside the Rand Water premises to ensure we have a dedicated supply to the entity,” said Mashava.
She explained that in short-term maintenance of Orlando switching station and Eikenhof was done to ensure optimal functioning of the network. There are also plans to expedite the completion of the Mondeor project (currently at 90%) to ensure they have an alternative bulk supply to the Eikenhof substation from another Eskom bill intake – the Prospect substation.
She explained that City Power was working with Joburg Water to support to ensure the supply of water is not interrupted.
“One of the things we are looking at is to see how to exclude them from load-shedding. The problem is that most of Joburg Water facilities are embedded within our network, making it difficult to exempt them. We are also looking at partnering with them for off-grid solutions,” she concluded.
Morero urged residents and businesses in Johannesburg to work with the City to reduce water wastage. He said that there are other innovative ways which could be utilised to avoid wasting clean fresh water.
These can include rainwater harvesting and boreholes.
He said that the city was looking at raising capital of R100b to replenish the ageing infrastructure.
