Massive water pipeline repair highlights Joburg’s infrastructure nightmare
Johannesburg has a R16bn water infrastructure backlog, says mayor Herman Mashaba. Reflecting on the city’s most complex water repair operation to date — repairs to a burst pipeline buried 35m under an unstable landfill — Mashaba said his administration had inherited a "decades-long infrastructure backlog" totalling R170bn‚ of which more than R16bn was for water infrastructure. On Monday‚ the burst pipeline in Linbro Park near Alexandra caused a water outage that lasted more than two days for most of the metro’s north. Reservoirs as far away as Bryanston ran dry. Mashaba said early on Friday morning: "Plans are under way to repair the burst pipe as it affected water supply, which in turn affected the supply of water to reservoirs running dry.
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