LETTER: Protect key water infrastructure from vandalism

Last week large parts of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane were again left without water because of Rand Water’s inability to protect and maintain its infrastructure. This is exactly what happened towards the end of February 2022, when residents across the province were left without water for days on end.

During the repair work on the burst Palmietfontein line two weeks ago it was discovered that there was evidence of vandalism in one of the chambers, which resulted in a burst pipe. This prompted the DA to visit various pumping stations and pipelines owned by Rand Water. 

It is extremely worrying that during these oversight inspections we discovered, particularly at the Primrose pipeline, that there is no security. The chambers are left open for anyone to access. No doubt this opens Rand Water’s infrastructure to vandalism. 

Residents not only have to contend with water outages as a result of infrastructure failure, but the ongoing load-shedding also affects the flow of water, worsening airlocks that develop in the system and cause a restricted flow to Jeppe, South Hills and Alexander Park reservoir, which feeds large parts of the south, southeast and north of the province. 

In the absence of the Johannesburg executive mayor and his mayoral committee, it is high time that the Gauteng government shows a level of care to our residents and takes the lead in setting up an intergovernmental task team to deal with the vandalism and protect our key infrastructure.  

Nico De Jager
DA MPL, Gauteng

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