Johannesburg residents were still waiting for their water to be restored late on Tuesday night after 10-hour-long repairs to a burst pipe on the corner of Central and Ninth avenues in Houghton Estate.
Although the problem had been resolved by 9pm, there would be no water until pressure in the pipe was restored — which could take until midnight, said Joburg Water spokesperson Jameel Chand.
The pipe burst was discovered up by a resident at 9am, and Joburg Water had nine plumbers working on the leak by 11am, he said.
The pipe is a high-pressure, 600mm main water inlet, which made repairs impossible until the pressure in the system was reduced by bleeding it of water over a few hours.
This water would have been sucked off at the reservoir, with the only wastage of the liquid being between the shut-off and the burst-point, said Chand.
Joburg Water supplied the city with over a billion litres of water every day, through 9 000km of pipeline. There was an equal length of sewer pipes.
Even though sections of these pipelines — parts of durable PVC and others still of the asbestos installed in bygone days — were routinely upgraded, wear-and-tear on this ”man-made” infrastructure was inevitable, Chand said.
Suburbs affected by the stoppage were Houghton Estate, Parktown North, Rosebank, Craighall Park, Illovo, Dunkeld, Dunkeld West, Melrose, Parkhurst, Hyde Park, Inanda, Sandhurst, and Saxonwold. – Sapa