Large parts of central Joburg are without water as the Yeoville reservoir ran dry during maintenenance work.
|||Johannesburg - Large parts of central Joburg are without water on Monday as the Yeoville reservoir ran dry during maintenance work.
More than 40 areas are affected including Kensington, Troyeville, Bez Valley, Bertams, Doornfontein, Berea, Yeoville, Hillbrow, Braamfontein, Malvern, Parktown, Cyrildene, Observatory, Bruma and the city centre.
On Monday morning, Joburg Water spokesman Hilgard Matthews said Rand Water had been linking a new pipe to the existing infrastructure over the weekend, which meant disrupting the feed to the Yeoville reservoir - an operation that was supposed to have lasted from 6am on Sunday to 6 on Monday morning. But there were complications so it took longer than expected and the reservoir ran dry.
“The reservoir did not get water coming into it since yesterday. So Yeoville reservoir is empty,” said Matthews.
He said refilling the reservoir started at 6am on Monday.
The Yeoville reservoir is a combined unit of three reservoirs, with a total capacity of 100 megalitres or 100 million litres.
“That is one of our biggest in the city,” said Matthews.
“It’s three reservoirs and all three are dry.”
By late Monday afternoon, the supply should be back in the low-lying areas, and the high-lying areas should be resupplied by Tuesday morning, said Matthews.
“It should be completely stable by tomorrow morning,” he said.
Joburg Water has water tankers in key areas including at hospitals.
These include one tank at Rand Hospital at the corner of Bruce and Banket streets in Hillbrow; a tank at Park Lane Hospital in Parktown; a tank at the Yeoville police station; and a tank at the Mandela Theatre at the civic centre in Braamfontein.
DA councillor for the Kensington area Carlos Da Rocha posted on his Facebook page that the Yeoville water reservoir was shut down for maintenance and, as it took too long to restart the water supply, the reservoir had run dry.
“It is a huge area indeed,” Da Rocha said.
“Because this tank services thousands of homes and residents, it will take days for the pressure to be back to normal.”
He said the areas on higher ground would struggle to get any water.
“It is now extremely important that for the next few days water usage drops, to allow for the reservoir to fill up again.
“If we don’t do that, some residents could be without water for days, so we have to be absolutely considerate towards others in this difficult situation,” the councillor said.
Residents on the We Love Kensington Facebook page pointed out that there were schools without water.
“That’s a lot of little bottoms and hands,” said Lornette Joseph Sarnell.
Muhammed Ismail asked why residents had not been informed.
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The Star