PARTS of Joburg must brace themselves for more days of dry taps.
This as progress on the water systems is moving at a slow pace.
This was heard on Wednesday afternoon, 6 March, during a last-minute media briefing by the City of Joburg and its other entities including City Power, and Joburg Water.
This briefing happens just day after parts of Joburg have been plunged into dryness.
This after two separate incidents of City Power outages on Sunday and Monday affected supplies at the Rand Water’s Eikenhof pump station.
Some of the areas affected by this are Soweto, Randburg, Roodepoort, Joburg south and central.
City manager Floyd Brinks said repairs at the affected substations started on Tuesday night.
“It's critical to know that the treatment and distribution of water to consumers is highly dependent on the constant water supply of electricity to feed our water pumps, motors and the mechanical equipment.
“In this instance the interruptions of electricity from City Power have rendered the pumps at Rand Water Eikenhof pump station unable to run and distribute water to Joburg water reservoirs and pump stations resulting in reservoirs running empty,” Brink explained.
On the backdrop of all these water woes, Brink also noted with concern the aging infrastructure and the efforts to improve response time as a critical contributor to disruptions.
As the issue of water supply remains pressing, Brink urged residents to use water wisely and avoid wastage.
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IN MPUMALANGA, getting water is a daily struggle for many communities around Mzansi.
But it's a different story for the residents of Silobela in Carolina, Mpumalanga.
The residents of this area have abandoned their taps and prefer using water from the ground.
They claimed that their municipality is providing them with dirty water. It's alleged that the problem dates back to 2012.
Carolina Eco Green Environmental and Social Justice group took the municipality to court.
In August 2012, the North Gauteng High Court compelled the municipality to supply portable water through the water services in Silobela.
Gogo Fikile Maseko said the situation is getting worse. She told Daily Sun they get water from ponds or school boreholes.
Gogo Fikile said they couldn't drink or cook with tap water because they might end up sick.
"Sometimes when you bathe with the water, your whole body gets itchy, and some people have been treated for waterborne related diseases," she said.
Mfisa Masina, who has a business that produces ice, said the issue of dirty water comes at a price for his small business.
He said he bought filters at least four times a month.
Meanwhile, Eddie Zitha of the Carolina Eco Green and Social Justice Group said the community has had several engagements with the municipality, but nothing has been done.
He said they are doing monthly tests, and the results always confirm that the water is contaminated.
Daily Sun has visited a sewer treatment plant.
There's a pipe diverted to the streams flowing straight into the Bomsanspruit dam which provides the community with water.
Chief Albert Luthuli spokesman Thapelo Phetla said the municipality is aware of the issue, and they have already appointed contractors to deal with the sewer spillage issue.
Phetla said the municipality is doing daily water testing to ensure the water Ph is drinkable.
"We are also doing monthly testing as the municipality. The last test we did as the municipality to compare with theirs was the one I submitted through the office of the technical service, and it was around December. We are doing daily on-site testing to check the water Ph whether it is drinkable," he said
