By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Rand Water warned that there might be some further delays in water flow as a result of airlocks which developed in the pipelines during the maintenance process.
This comes after the water utility on Friday completed a 58-hour planned maintenance project to tie in two valves between the A19 and B14 Pipelines.
An airlock is a pocket of air in a pipeline that prevents water flow. This usually happens when bubbles gather in the pipeline.
In a statement on Saturday, the utility stated that due to the system being empty for three days it is bound to have airlocks.
“To mitigate this matter, the system may require to be momentarily decommissioned, to release the airlock that was assembled during the maintenance process. Simply put, there is a need for the water utility to decommission certain pipelines to release air into the system.
“This intervention will assist in ensuring that the newly restored pipelines are not damaged due to airlocks that are confined in the system. An airlock is a pocket of air in a pipeline that prevents the flow of water, and it happens when bubbles gather in the pipeline.”
The water utility urged customers to avoid areas that are close to what appear to be leaking pipelines as they could lead to fatalities.
“It is also important to mention that Rand Water pipelines are under extreme pressure and for that reason, consumers are warned to avoid areas that are close to what appear to be leaking pipelines as they may lead to injuries or fatalities.
“Consumers are urged to adhere to the cautionary warning”, the statement read.
During the outage, Rand Water said it had conducted several projects to ensure it would have the capacity for the future needs of the municipalities it supplies.
The bulk water supplier takes water from the Integrated Vaal River System, purifies it, and distributes it to its reservoirs. Municipalities then draw water from these reservoirs to supply residents and businesses.
Johannesburg was the most affected by the outage, which hit Soweto, Laanglagte, Southdale, Randburg, Roodepoort, Orange Farm, Ennerdale, Johannesburg South, the CBD, and surrounding areas.