Tshwane residents face ongoing water shortages following maintenance work

Some Tshwane residents are still without water days after Rand Water maintenance caused widespread outages, with some areas experiencing severe water shortages. 

Despite the water utility's infrastructure maintenance being concluded, residents in Soshanguve Block UU, Block L, Block VV, and WW are still struggling to access water.

The affected areas, which rely on the Soshanguve Block L reservoir, have been left stranded, with residents forced to wait in queues to fill up empty buckets with water from municipal water tankers.

Previously, Deputy Mayor Eugene Modise explained that historically, the city had problems with the Block L reservoir, which is located in the high-lying areas. 

Residents are furious, alleging that the municipality is prioritising tankers over taps, allowing officials to profit from the crisis.

“I believe the problem is deliberately caused by those who own the water tankers, as they stand to profit from distributing water to residents during shortages,” said a car wash owner, James Baloyi.

He expressed concern that he was losing income as he could not do anything without water.

The city has acknowledged the negative impact of water shortage, stating that it is working with Rand Water to restore the water supply and rebuild system capacity. 

“Every effort is being made in collaboration with Rand Water to rebuild system capacity as efficiently as possible. Rand Water has resumed pumping at full capacity at Palmiet Pump Station, and pressure is steadily increasing within the network,” the city said in a statement to residents.

Other residents took to social media to blast the city over prolonged water cuts, saying it was unacceptable that communities must be left without water despite that they pay huge bills for it every month.

Frustrated residents waited in queues for their turns to fill up empty buckets with water from roving water tankers organised by the municipality to alleviate their plight.

The city said it noted the continued pressure on the water level within the Palmiet system, and it is actively managing the situation to ensure water restoration and of stable supply across the affected areas.

The city further indicated that, despite the progress, the recovery process is gradual as water must first travel through the pipeline, and replenish depleted reservoirs before normal supply can be fully stabilised.

Mabopane Main, Mabopane Central, Soshanguve L, Soshanguve DD, Atteridgeville LL, Atteridgeville HL, Lotus, and Laudium are experiencing low water pressure or intermittent supply.

The city said: “While pumping is under way all systems require sufficient time to recover. Rand Water is simultaneously refilling its own storage reservoirs and its internal bulk pipelines, some of which feed into the city’s distribution network, further influencing the pace of recovery.”

On Tuesday, the city stated that, as part of the ongoing recovery process, it would temporarily stop the inflow into the Heights HL Reservoir and redirect this water to Laudium and Atteridgeville HL reservoirs, aimed at supporting areas that are currently experiencing low pressure on their systems.

The intervention, according to the city, could only be implemented on Tuesday as the Height HL was previously at a critically low level. 

“The reservoir has now recovered to just below 50%, creating an opportunity to briefly redirect supply without severely compromising the Heights system,” the city said.

However, residents are skeptical, pointing out that this is not the first time the city has faced a water crisis.

In July, residents of Soshanguve, Mabopane, Ga-Rankuwa, and Winterveldt faced a similar crisis due to maintenance at the Hartebeesthoek Reservoir.

“This is unacceptable. We pay huge bills for water every month, and yet we are left without it,” said one resident.

rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za