48-hour water disruption to impact more than 10 suburbs in Johannesburg
Parts of Johannesburg will undergo a 48-hour water outage beginning Tuesday, 12 November, as a result of essential maintenance work.
Starting Tuesday, 12 November, residents in parts of Meadowlands and nearby areas in Johannesburg will experience a 48-hour water outage due to essential maintenance work.
Johannesburg Water confirmed that the water outage will affect all streets within Meadowlands extensions 1 to 12, parts of Orlando West, Dube, Mofolo North and Central, as well as Tshepo Themba Hospital, Meadowlands Hostel, and Dube Hostel.
Johannesburg Water: Planned maintenance for improved service
The water outage is essential for retrofitting the main Pressure-Reducing Valve (PRV) chamber, which supplies water to the Meadowlands reservoir and the Tower and directly feeds to the Meadowlands area. This scheduled maintenance, beginning at 8:00 on 12 November and concluding at 8:00 on 14 November, aims to enhance the reliability and quality of water service in the affected areas.
Johannesburg Water will deploy water tankers across affected neighbourhoods to provide temporary relief.
Minister Majodina emphasises the need for Infrastructure care
Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina addressed Gauteng’s water issues during an update on her department’s progress after 100 days in office.
Majodina highlighted that while Gauteng faces water shortages, these challenges are not due to a drought. She attributed the issues to “self-inflicted” failures within local municipalities, noting that warnings about ageing infrastructure had gone unheeded.
“It’s the self-inflicted pain of municipalities in Gauteng, because we warned them as early as June to take care of the water infrastructure,” Majodina stated.
“They were losing a lot of water, which could have been prevented.”
Majodina also noted the various challenges impacting water supply in the province, including illegal connections, mining activities, and poor credit management by municipalities. She urged municipalities to improve their infrastructure maintenance to prevent further water security issues.
Ensuring Water Security for Gauteng
Despite the upcoming water outage, Johannesburg Water assured residents that the maintenance would improve service delivery and ensure continuity in the water supply.