‘Day zero’ hits southern Joburg as City Power fire causes reservoirs to dry up
A fire at a transformer in Eikenhof kicked out a sub-station dedicated to Rand Water – sabotage is suspected
Sabotage is suspected in a City Power transformer fire that caused a water-supply failure to large parts of Johannesburg, mayor Herman Mashaba said on Tuesday. "Day Zero" came unexpectedly to the southern and western parts of the city on Tuesday as water reservoirs began drying after power up due to a fire thatdestroyed a City Power transformer at Eikenhof, south of the city, while bottled water flew off the shelves at grocery stores in the western and southern suburbs. A spokesperson for Shoprite confirmed that there has been a spike in demand for bottled water since Tuesday morning. “We are carefully monitoring the stock levels and will continue to replenish as best we can.” A Joburg Water spokesperson said water tanks were being placed across the southern and western parts of the city. She also provided a list of reservoirs that have run dry, the number of which indicated that as much as half he city had no, or severely limited, piped-water supplies by Tuesday afternoon. She ...
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