By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Several parts of Johannesburg (JHB) are experiencing a water outage due to a lightning strike on the Eikenhof pump station which has impacted water supply.
The incident occurred at 8pm, affecting the Eikenhof substation that is responsible for supplying power to the Rand Water Board pump station.
Currently, Rand Water is not pumping water, with no alternative supply available.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena says the utility will be dismantling the feederboard where the flashover occured to do the repairs and pressure-test it before restoration can start.
“This may affect the water supply to Joburg and areas west of Joburg, including Mogale City, Krugersdorp, Carletonville, parts of Brits and Rustenburg.
“Power supply to the residential customers feeding from Eikenhof substation is fortunately not affected by this.
City Power has notified the Rand Water Board and is working closely with its teams to implement solutions to restore supply.”
Repairs are expected to be ongoing until Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile Department of Water and Sanitation met with officials from the City of Johannesburg to discuss the ongoing water supply crisis in the metro on Tuesday.
“The persistent water supply challenges in Johannesburg are of great concern, and they negatively reflect on all of us in the sector and therefore require us to continue engaging on measures to completely address them,” said Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu.
“The projects required are seemingly easily identifiable, but there are funding constraints that we need to address and resolve.”
Johannesburg and its surrounds, at the centre of the industrial heartland of South Africa, have been hit by severe water cuts. Water interruptions have been happening for years, but they have been scaled up dramatically in recent weeks.
The Gauteng province metropolitan councils are perfect examples of the effects of poor water governance and management as well as lack of political will over the past two decades. This has led to a lack of investment and underfunding of bulk water and sanitation infrastructure.
The result is that the water infrastructure, from water supply to treatment, storage, water resources and management, has fallen into disrepair. Also at play is a lack of planning and management of growing water demands due to increased population, migration and expansion of settlements.