Joburg water outage: Valves stolen in Soweto, further restoration delays expected

Vandalism risks delaying water restoration in Johannesburg’s suburbs after the shutdown over the long weekend.

Bulk water supplier Rand Water and municipal distributor Johannesburg Water gave feedback on Tuesday detailing how the weekend maintenance operation progressed.

The latter shared a number of criminal incidents involving employees as well as the water levels of recovering reservoirs.

Assault, vandalism and theft

The figures were shared with ward councillors after a dry weekend that had frustrations at boiling point in the summer heat.

Johannesburg Water outlined the “opportunistic criminal incidents” which made the work of employees and contractors increasingly difficult.

On Friday night, a female Johannesburg Water employee was robbed between 10pm and 11pm while on her way home, with the entity adding that she narrowly escaped sexual assault.

Those delivering water were targeted the following day, with truck drivers allegedly robbed and their vehicles ransacked in two separate incidents.

Meanwhile, a truck was attacked while refilling in Westbury on Sunday night, leaving the driver beaten and the truck inoperable.

JoJo tanks were vandalised in multiple areas across the city, while valves on lines left dry by the planned maintenance were damaged.

“Several Rand Water valves and meters have been vandalised and components stolen around Soweto,” said Johannesburg Water.

“This will delay recovery of some of the Soweto systems as repairs have to be undertaken before water supply is commissioned,” it clarified.

Johannesburg water levels

Rand Water had previously stated that restoration of water levels could take several days but some suburbs were reporting a resumption of service on Tuesday morning.

The entities had stated this weekend that pumping will only begin once reservoirs had recovered to sufficient levels.

As of 9.30am on 17 December, Helderkruin, Constantia and Quellerina towers feeding parts of Roodepoort were all less than 10% full.

Likewise, Crosby and Brixton towers were at single digit levels, while the Hursthill bypass and Northcliff tower were at 17% and 28%, respectively.

Aeroton, Chiawelo and Doornkop West were all over 30%, while Meadowlands and the two Linden reservoirs were all over 50%.