Suburbs in Johannesburg north have been hit by water outages.
Alfonso Nqunjana
- Bergbron has been without water for almost a week after Johannesburg Water contractors allegedly struck a sewer pipe and power cable during repair works, leading to sewage mixing in with fresh water.
- The City of Johannesburg has dispatched water tankers to affected residents.
- One resident said they feared contracting cholera, and described the water tanker solution as not ideal.
A suburb in the north of Johannesburg has been without water for almost a week after Johannesburg Water contractors allegedly struck a sewer pipe and power cable, leading to raw sewage running into the freshwater supply system.
A resident, who wished to be kept anonymous, said residents of Bergbron had reported a pipe leak and that Johannesburg Water personnel were dispatched to fix the issue on 2 June. However, the workers allegedly made matters worse when they struck the wrong pipe.
“They started digging where the sewerage pipe was. When they did that, it hit a power cable and burst open the pipe,” the man said.
The contractors allegedly left the pipes leaking overnight.
“After they struck the wrong pipe, they left and sewage water was running into freshwater.”
On 3 June, Johannesburg Water closed off the water reserve tanks to help with the pressure. The water utility then sent a request that the residents use water sparingly.
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Work that was being done using a tractor loader backhoe caused an old asbestos pipe to burst open, resulting in raw sewage running into the freshwater supply.
On Wednesday, Johannesburg Water noted that there had been a burst sewer pipe and said the affected portion of sewerage had been isolated.
“During follow-up repairs on a burst pipe at Bernard Road, the sewer main was found partially damaged. The affected portion of the water network has been isolated. The sewerage was drained on Monday and water samples were taken in for testing.
“Laboratory results will advise if further flushing needs to be done. Once results indicate that the water quality is up to standard, water will be restored.
“Customers in the affected streets are requested to refrain from utilising water from the network until further advised.”
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The utility said fresh water supply would be made available through tankers on the affected streets.
“Johannesburg Water is dedicated to ensuring that the quality of water provided to our customers is at the highest level,” it said.
The resident confirmed that the City had provided water tankers, but said the situation wasn’t ideal.
He said:
The tanker solution seems to be working. The tankers are here during the day and return in the morning, but we still don’t have water running out of our taps. In light of the cholera outbreak, it’s scary. It poses health and sanitation risks.
The man said that while the sewer pipe had been fixed, sewage should never have ran into fresh water.
“They’ve fixed the sewage pipe. They put chlorine and flushed down the water to get clean water. They said they needed to test the water to check if it hadn’t been contaminated. Once results have been brought back, maybe we’ll have water in our taps again.”
Johannesburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala said final cleaning of the fresh water supply system had been done.
“Johannesburg Water tested the water in the nearby network and the samples were clear,” said Shabalala.
“Residents are urged to use water sparingly during this time as we currently do not have an expected time of completion.”
Areas experiencing water outages include: