Tshwane prioritises water restoration as water woes continue for residents

Water shortages in parts of Pretoria are expected to continue as water supply from Rand Water is expected to stabilise in a week's time. 

Residents of Pretoria East and parts of Tshwane had a dry weekend after water supply was interrupted on Thursday.

Rand Water faced several issues last week, including flooding at the Zuikerbosch plant and power interruptions from Eskom to the Mapleton pumping station on Friday. Pretoria East went for days without power after pylons collapsed on the N4 east freeway.

The water entity stopped supplying the city with water from Thursday due to repairs on a water leak on the B8 pipeline between the Zuikerbosch water treatment plant and Mapleton booster pumping station the day before.

This lasted until Sunday when the electricity was restored in the early hours of the morning, Tshwane MMC for utilities and regional operations Themba Fosi said.

Zuikerbosch and Mapleton provide the water supply from Rand Water to large parts of Pretoria East and other parts of Tshwane.

Due to the challenges, City of Tshwane and Rand Water reservoirs ran low or empty.

But according to Rand Water, the restoration of power at the Mapleton booster station did not mean taps would be running again. Spokesperson Makenosi Maroo said it could take up to a week.

“It is important to note that there will not be an immediate relief in the water supply system. The system will require a recovery period of up to one week to fully stabilise,” said Maroo.

But water supply is returning to low-lying areas and the Garsfontein reservoir was being regulated to build capacity and push water through to the greater parts of the water network, Fosi said.

“Garsfontein reservoir is being monitored closely and more water will be released as reservoir levels improve. We are expecting reservoir levels to improve throughout the day and overnight, and we will continue monitoring the situation,” said Fosi.

In the meantime, Tshwane increased their provisions of water tankers to the affected residents on Monday.

“Water has been flowing to our City of Tshwane reservoirs since Sunday, but with high water usage during the day, our reservoirs normally only make significant recovery overnight.

"We have seen water supply return to low-lying areas and working to restore sufficient supply in our reservoirs to get supply to high-lying areas,” Fosi said.

Just last week, Pretoria East went for days without power after a pylon collapsed.

TimesLIVE