Johannesburg Water outage
Parts of Johannesburg will experience a 14-hour and 10-hour shutdowns on Tuesday. Image: Unsplash

Home » Johannesburg water crisis: These are the top 10 contributors

Johannesburg water crisis: These are the top 10 contributors

Johannesburg Water has highlighted the top ten things residents need to watch out for that contribute to the Johannesburg water crisis

By Nokwanda Ncwane
20-03-24 11:36
in Environment
Johannesburg Water outage
Parts of Johannesburg will experience a 14-hour and 10-hour shutdowns on Tuesday. Image: Unsplash

As water woes persist in the City of Gold, Johannesburg Water has released a list of the top ten areas that consume the most water.

The list was released as several suburbs continue to battle with dry taps due to planned and unplanned water outages.

LIST OF TOP TEN WATER CONSUMERS IN JOHANNESBURG

Experts have warned that the water system in Johannesburg is on the verge of collapse. However City of Joburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda says there is no crisis in the City of Gold.

Gwamanda told the Daily Maverick that several areas in the metro have experienced water outages at some point. These have been isolated or linked to several factors, such as power outages, vandalism, infrastructure theft, etc.

Furthermore, he said the City’s current water and sanitation infrastructure backlog is estimated to be R27 billion, and the City is spending only R1 billion annually on infrastructure. Ideally, this should be R3 billion to attend to the backlogs decisively.

Johannesburg Water
City of Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda. Image: X/@tndaba.

Johannesburg Water said the recent prolonged heatwave and lack of rain increased demand significantly. This caused reservoirs of the bulk supply to decline and the system remains slow.

Here are the top ten consuming areas/metres according to Johannesburg Water:

  • Sandton 1 and 2 metres (Alexander is an area of concern)
  • Yeoville Reservoir (Johannesburg CBD is an area of concern)
  • Forest Hill Reservoir (Rosettenville is an area of concern)
  • Meadowlands system supply zone
  • Jabulani reservoir supply zone
  • Aeroton Tower (Orlando East is an area of concern)
  • Lenasia Reservoir (informal settlements in the area are a concern)
  • Zondi Tower supply zone
  • Doornkop North (Doornkop, Tshepisong, Slovoville and Matholesville are areas of concern)
  • President Park (Ivory Park, Kaalfontein, Ebony Park and Commercia are areas of concern).

CITY IMPLEMENTS LEVEL 1 RESTRICTIONS

At the weekend, Johannesburg Water urged residents to continue conserving water and observe Level-1 Water Restrictions. The restrictions have been in place since September 2023.

Under Level-1 Water Restrictions, the following is prohibited from 6:00-18:00:

  • Watering gardens
  • Filling up swimming pools
  • Use of hosepipes to clean paved areas and driveways
  • Washing cars with a hosepipe

UNPLANNED MAINTENANCE RESULTS IN14-HOUR OUTAGE

Parts of Johannesburg will not have water for 14 hours on Tuesday, 20 March due to unplanned maintenance.

Johannesburg Water said the maintenance will take place from 7:00 – 21:00.

Affected areas include Alexandra, Wyneburg, Kew, Bramley and parts of Glenhazel.

Tags: featured Important Johannesburg Water MMifunsa water crisis