Four Gauteng health facilities hit as water supply dries up

Four public health facilities have had water supply interruptions, one of which has been going on for two weeks, the health department said on Thursday. 

The affected facilities are Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital, Helen Joseph Hospital, Zola Community Health Centre (CHC) in Johannesburg district, and Dr Yusuf Dadoo Hospital on the West Rand. 

Helen Joseph and surrounding areas started experiencing water shortages from Monday as a result of problems at Johannesburg Water. Affected areas include the emergency department, the intensive care unit and various wards. 

“The facility management is closely monitoring the situation and has put in place measures to divert Priority 1 (emergency and critical) and Priority 2 (urgent but stable) patients to other facilities when necessary,” the department said.

It said Rahima Moosa has had water supply problems since Monday due to Hursthill 1 reservoir being critically affected. 

The Mogale City municipality has been asked to station water tankers at Dr Yusuf Dadoo Hospital. 

The department said the Zola health centre in Soweto has been relying on municipal water tankers for the past two weeks.

The department said the water utility indicated on Tuesday that City Power was conducting site repairs due to damage that was caused on feeder boards supplying Rand Water's Eikenhof pump station with electricity. This affected mainly areas in Soweto and Johannesburg. 

The water utility has sent water tankers to the affected health facilities to minimise the impact on services but not enough to meet the water demand in the facilities. 

The department apologised to patients for the water supply interruptions. It said the health facilities, even with contingency measures in place such as having tanks and boreholes, still relied on constant supply of water from relevant authorities to carry out health services. 

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