It’s not us, says Johannesburg Water, it’s Rand Water cutting Joburg’s supply

Johannesburg Water wishes to respond and clarify some inaccuracies in the Daily Maverick article published on Tuesday, 9 May 2023 titled “Residents face more supply cuts while Johannesburg Water clams up over crisis”.

This statement is inaccurate: “Johannesburg Water has scheduled a 39-hour water shutdown to complete maintenance this week. Residents are already reeling from unofficial cuts.”

It is not a Johannesburg Water shutdown; it is a Rand Water shutdown. It’s a planned Rand Water shutdown that affects Johannesburg Water customers in Winchester Hills and surrounding areas. The shutdown will last for 39 hours from 6pm on 11 May until 9am on 13 May 2023.

The purpose of the shutdown is to complete a tie-in of the newly replaced section of the G20 pipeline to the existing G20 pipeline. This will result in no water supply to parts of the following areas: Winchester Hills, Gillview, Mondeor, Suideroord and Glenanda. Alternative supply is being arranged for the affected areas. Further updates will be provided to residents.

Johannesburg Water published a statement about the Rand Water shutdown on 19 April 2023 and on our social media platforms (which include Twitter and Facebook).

We published a statement again on 25 April 2023 and a reminder on 7 May. Since 19 April we have been publishing the information in our Daily Water Notices twice a day.

The following statement is inaccurate and misleading: “On top of ongoing water outages in Johannesburg, the city’s bulk water provider, Johannesburg Water, has scheduled a water shutdown for almost 40 hours for a maintenance project on one of its pipelines.”

Rand Water is in fact the bulk water supplier providing potable water to municipalities and entities including Johannesburg Water, City of Tshwane, City of Ekurhuleni, Emfuleni Municipality, to name a few. Johannesburg Water is a distributor, not a bulk supplier.  

Read more in Daily Maverick: Joburg’s latest water outages – residents ask: ‘Is this sabotage or secret shedding?’

What is also not true is that Johannesburg Water has scheduled a water shutdown for almost 40 hours for maintenance. It is a planned Rand Water shutdown, and not Johannesburg Water.

This statement also refers: “This comes after parts of the city including Berea, Bertrams, Bezuidenhout Valley, Kensington, Belleview, Observatory, Parktown, Hillbrow and Braamfontein were without running water for close to a week.”

The two abovementioned issues (the 39-hour planned Rand Water shutdown and Johannesburg Water’s Yeoville Pump Station operational challenges) are not linked in any way. The Rand Water shutdown is a planned and compulsory routine process that is crucial for the maintenance of infrastructure, while Johannesburg Water’s Yeoville Pump Station was an operational challenge that was unplanned and unforeseen.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Joburg Water answers our questions about the supply crisis

“Johannesburg Water has not given a timeline for when the water supply will be restored, but it is dispatching water tankers to service the affected areas.”

The operational challenges experienced at the Yeoville Pump Station have since been resolved and the pump station is operational. Johannesburg Water issued communication on our social media platforms, updating customers about these developments. DM