WATCH: Johannesburg Water unveils plans to tackle City’s water crisis
Level-one restriction is not entirely effective.
Johannesburg Water (JW) team led by its MD Ntshavheni Mukwevho had a press briefing on the current state of water supply in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) on November 28.
The team consisted of senior operations manager Logan Munsamy and spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala. They outlined water challenges, new developments that have taken place, and the mitigation strategies that the entity has in place to manage the situation. The special focus was on the Commando System (Brixton, Crosby and Hursthill).
CoJ’s current average consumption is 1 750Ml/d and Rand Water (RW) supplied the CoJ with 1 600Ml/d from December 1.
Subsequently, RW will then reduce the supply to 1 550Ml/d between February and April next year, then gradually reduce the supply to 1 356Ml/d by September 2025. CoJ must reduce demand to align with the supply to avoid a water supply system collapse. Hence the use of water sparingly is important.
Aggressive intervention
JW came up with feasible interventions to solve the problem of water.
These are:
• The permanent reduction of water supply to prepaid and deemed consumption areas is effective November 11. Additional Opex budget for alternative water supply to critical customers such as schools, old age homes and more.
• Scheduled water supply reduction between 21:00 to 05:00 effected on November 8, and 21:00 to 04:00 as from November 14 with the possibility of increasing the duration from 16:00 to 04:00 should they not observe reduction of demand. The restriction will include supply to informal settlements. Additional armed security services in hostile areas.
• Increase burst repair turnaround time from 48 to 24 hours. Expedite the procurement of a contract for the emergency repairs of water pipe bursts and allocated budget. Expedite the procurement of critical material for the repair of leaking water network infrastructure. Allocate overtime budget for additional teams during weekends and weekdays. Procuring a contractor for welding services to supplement the existing welding teams.
• Procured contractors to supply an additional 10 TLBs (one per depot) so that water teams have two TLBs.
Interventions and resources required
Intensify level-three disconnections in prepaid meter areas, bad/hijacked buildings in CBD and informal areas, effected on November 12.
@southern.courier Johannesburg Water (JW) team led by its MD Ntshavheni Mukwevho had a press briefing on the current state of water supply in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) on November 28. The team consisted of senior operations manager Logan Munsamy and spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala. They outlined water challenges, new developments that have taken place, and the mitigation strategies that the entity has in place to manage the situation. The special focus was on the Commando System (Brixton, Crosby and Hursthill). CoJ’s current average consumption is 1 750Ml/d and Rand Water (RW) supplied the CoJ with 1 600Ml/d from December 1.
Intensify the repair and maintenance of the network pressure-reducing valves affected in October. Expedite the procurement of a service provider to supplement internal resources. So far, 204 pressure-reducing valves out of the 685 total complements were completed.
Pressure management and installation of Smart Controllers utilising the existing frame contract. Additional Capex budget for installation of additional 45 Smart Controllers.
Advance leak detention utilising the existing frame contract and additional Capex budget for procurement of additional 200 noise loggers.
In terms of leaking reservoir progress, JW conducted reservoir conditional and identified 22 as critical, and Hurshill Reservoir 2 (22,7Ml) of Commando System was one of them.
It was established that although the design development is complete, they are still waiting for the procurement of panel contractors, the refurbishment of the reservoir complex is in procurement and currently reviewing specifications and bills of quantities.
By-law enforcement
JW conducts regular inspections/stand-by-stand audits to identify consumers who are not authorised customers. This process needs by-law enforcement, which will be done in collaboration with JMPD.
The entity is also conducting level-three disconnections of properties where illegal connections have been identified.
This initiative is done in collaboration with the JMPD by-law enforcement unit and where they are experiencing resistance then the Public Order Policing is also included as part of the enforcement. This initiative assists with expediting the revenue recovery.
Water interruption: Commando System
The Commando System was impacted by City Power maintenance work that impacted the RW Eikenhof pumping station on November 17.
Although other systems within JW were impacted, the Commando System being the most sensitive has been struggling to recover.
Various interventions were/are in place including throttling and closures of high-demand areas, night closures of reservoirs, etc. but recovery has been slow, mainly due to increasing demand and hot weather conditions.
However through reconfiguration of systems from both JW and the bulk supplier, the system is showing upwards signs of recovery.
So short-term plans include: night closures/throttling of high-demand areas and medium to long-term plans: infrastructure upgrade.
