Water crisis in Joburg South enters day five

The widespread water outage that has been plaguing Johannesburg’s southern suburbs for several days is expected to be resolved soon, with recovery to begin on Monday evening.

Joburg Water spokesperson Puleng Mopeli said while the Alexander Park Reservoir was stable, monitoring was continuing at the South Hills Tower where the water level was critically low due to insufficient supply.

“It is estimated recovery may commence later this evening,” Mopeli said on Monday.

Suburbs that fall within the South Hills tower zone include Risana, Linmeyer, South Hills, Tulisa Park, Steeledale, The Hill, Oakdene, Rosettenville and Klipriviersberg estate. 

He said alternative water supply through mobile tankers was being provided at key sites.

Joburg Water was urging all customers to reduce their water consumption to critical needs only while the system recovers.

Mopeli said there had been steady improvements in the affected areas in and around Johannesburg, with supply to the Linksfield Reservoir restored on Saturday and the Alexander Park reservoir zone issues resolved on Sunday.

Meanwhile, residents of Linmeyer, South Hills and surrounding areas said they are frustrated by repeated outages which have plagued them for the past two years.

Local ward councillor Michael Crichton believes most issues stem from Rand Water infrastructure challenges.

He said recent outages include an explosion at the Palmiet pumping station last July which left residents without water for nine days, a power failure at the Zuikerbosh purification plant a month later that affected supply for eight days and the current water outage which has now lasted four days.

“These water outages are nothing short of a full-blown humanitarian crisis,” Crichton wrote in an open letter to water and sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu.

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