Residents of Johannesburg have been advised to make necessary preparations as a planned 58-hour water outage is scheduled, with potential lingering effects in certain areas for up to two weeks.
Rand Water has announced that maintenance activities will be carried out to replace multiple valves at the Vereeniging water treatment plant, Eikenhof booster pumping station, and Zuikerbosch water treatment plant.
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Additionally, work will be conducted on electrical boards at the Lethabo pumping station.
The 58-hour project is set to commence at 7 pm on Tuesday and conclude at 5 am on Friday. During this period, intermittent water supply is expected for some residents in the Rustenburg municipality, Mogale City municipality, and the Rand West municipality.
The maintenance operations aim to create a window of opportunity for essential interventions that cannot be performed while the plant is operational. The benefits include infrastructure upgrades, improved reliability, and optimal functionality of the water treatment facilities.
Johannesburg Water, in collaboration with other agencies, will deploy stationary tankers to critical locations such as hospitals, clinics, municipal offices, schools, and police stations.
Additional tankers will be stationed across affected suburbs. Roaming water trucks will also be dispatched to assist.
Residents are strongly advised to begin storing water in advance to mitigate the impact on reservoirs and towers. It is crucial to refrain from leaving taps open during the outage.
Johannesburg Water warns that air can enter the water flow from the utility source, and since water meters cannot differentiate between air and water, leaving taps open could result in overestimating water consumption and inflated bills.
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Furthermore, residents are urged to switch off geysers during the outage to conserve energy and prevent potential damage.
Areas anticipated to be affected include Randburg, Roodepoort, Johannesburg central, Ennerdale, Southdale, and Soweto.