Rolling blackouts and increased demand due to high temperatures has left dozens of areas in Gauteng without water.
This has forced the City of Ekurhuleni to switch off critical reservoirs daily from 10pm until 4am.
The municipality said this would be done until the Rand Water supply system, which has been badly affected by power outages, recovers.
Joburg Water, on the other hand, has again requested residents to observe Level-1 water restrictions which prohibit the use of hosepipes to water gardens, wash cars and clean driveways, among other things.
Some reservoirs are empty.
In Johannesburg, areas such as Honeydew, Linden, Riverlea, Randburg, Witpoortjie and Crown Gardens did not have water yesterday due to power failure at the Eikenhof pumping stations.
Benoni, Daveyton, Etwatwa, Brakpan and Tsakani, all on the East Rand, also had no water due to low levels at Rand Water's Mapleton and Zwartkoppies supply systems.
The City of Ekurhuleni sent water tankers to supply water in the affected areas.
"Chloorkop, near Kempton Park, is also experiencing low water pressure. The city has deployed water tankers which are roving in the various locations within the affected areas. Schools, clinics and hospitals will be prioritised," said Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Dlamini.
"Rand Water is working to build up its storage capacity. As such, critical reservoirs will be switched off daily from 10pm until 4am. This intervention will continue until the Rand Water supply systems recover.
"The reservoirs are closely monitored and updates will be provided to the customers timeously. The city apologises for the inconvenience this situation, which is beyond our control, is causing," Dlamini said.
Rand Water spokesperson Makenosi Maroo said the reservoir storage level were at 76% on January 8.
“The situation was exacerbated by power supply failures that affected Zuikerbosch purification plant and Eikenhof pump station on 13 January 2023. The power outage incident lasted for a period of six hours and affected Zuikerbosch pumping station at its Engine Room 4 which supplies almost 40% of Rand Water’s capacity.
“This affected pumping to our pump stations that feed water into reservoirs. Power outage at Eikenhof booster station affected the system for a period of three hours, making it impossible to feed water into the reservoirs.
"Rand Water’s system is extremely sensitive to any power outage and may take a minimum of four hours to recover after an outage. The reservoir storage level had as a result dropped to 63% when the system recovered,” said Maroo.
Maroo said the Eikenhof booster station experienced yet another power failure on Sunday which affected water pumping from this station. This incident caused a further depletion of Rand Water’s reservoirs levels leaving some reservoirs at 0% storage level.
Maroo said the company is completing its generator installation project aimed at reducing power outages. However, this will not cover all Rand Water sites.
dlaminip@sowetan.co.za
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