Johannesburg Water says it has a two-phase plan to repair 44 leaking reservoirs in the city, about half of its total amount of reservoirs. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Various pipe replacement programmes are underway in Johannesburg to improve water supply, the city’s utility says.
“One of the most recent and notable interventions that we are undertaking … is the linking of the Northcliff — which is stable and has enough bulk supply — and Hursthill reservoirs to boost water supply,” said Johannesburg Water’s spokesperson, Nombuso Tshabalala.
“This intervention is … so that there will be stable and convenient water supply in one of our biggest and problematic systems, the Commando System [comprising Brixton, Crosby and Hursthill].”
Johannesburg Water is also upgrading the main water supply into Jan Hofmeyer, which forms part of the Brixton system, “after it was discovered that the pipe diameter had restrictions in certain sections”, Tshabalala said.
And a project is underway for the construction of the new Brixton tower and pump station, which will augment water supply to that area, followed by pipe and pump station upgrades to the Hursthill/Crosby system.
Tshabalala said Johannesburg Water had worked with City Power to grant it some reprieve from load-shedding in areas that have its system networks. “This will provide us with an opportunity to commence with repairs and work through delivering uninterrupted water supply to residents,” she said, adding that Johannesburg Water had also approached national power utility Eskom with the same request.
Tshabalala said the Gauteng city-region’s water security plan outlines the Johannesburg metro’s obligation for water security and sustainability. The city’s Growth and Development Strategy 2040 emphasises the threat of water security and the need to promote water recycling and harvesting to ensure water for future generations.
Water demand has increased steadily over the past few years, driven mostly by densification in certain areas and a population increase in Johannesburg, which is “largely seen as the province of employment opportunity. Compounded to this is the increasing bursts/leakage rate mostly due to ageing infrastructure”.
The city has an ongoing problem with ageing infrastructure. “This causes various issues, such as frequent pipe bursts and leaks, which lead to water outages,” Tshabalala said.
Theft and vandalism of infrastructure also plays a “huge role” in hampering reliable and uninterrupted water supply to residents and businesses, with the city losing millions of rands a year this way. The entity has a dedicated team that regularly inspects and “cracks down” on illegal connections to deal with theft and vandalism and loss of assets.
To reduce water demand, the entity’s five-year water conservation and water demand management strategy includes addressing the repairing of leaking reservoir and tower infrastructure; repairing and replacement of zonal bulk metres; active and passive leak detection; and the retrofitting and removal of wasteful devices through the installation of prepaid smart meters and water pipe replacement.
“On an operational level, we replace old brass water meters with newer type plastic above- ground meters as well as replace steel manhole and valve box covers to polymer type, which has no scrap value.”
Johannesburg Water’s allocation by the city council for its operational budget is R15.6 billion for the 2023-24 financial year. This will mainly cater for a tariff increase of 9.3% based on a pass through on the water purchases from Gauteng bulk supplier Rand Water to invest in maintenance of the water network, Tshabalala said. The entity is further allocated a R3.1 billion multi-year capital budget that is R2.6 billion, and R514 million for water and sewer, respectively.
“The allocated budget will focus on programmes geared towards water and sewer pipe replacement, upgrades and storage infrastructure, the wastewater treatment works programme, as well as repairs and maintenance,” Tshabalala said, adding that sewer upgrades will be done in areas including Orange Farm, Lanseria, Soweto, Diepsloot, Ennerdale and Cosmo City.
She added that Johannesburg Water has established a team to investigate the increase in non-revenue water [unbilled, theft and leaks], which includes a detailed review of the reduction in the billing volumes and enhancing the current meter reading system to enable a zonal tracking of the revenue water and non-revenue water.
Plans are in place to install advance metering for large water users and standard transfer specification prepaid meters for households.