Last week, large parts of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane were again left without water because of Rand Water’s inability to protect and maintain its infrastructure. This is exactly what happened towards the end of February 2022 when residents across the province were left without water for days on end.
During the repair work on the burst Palmietfontein line last week, it was discovered that there was evidence of vandalism in one of the chambers resulting in a burst pipe. This prompted the DA to visit various pumping stations and pipelines owned by Rand Water.
It is very worrying that during these oversight inspections, we discovered, particularly at the Primrose pipeline in Germiston, that there is no security at these pipelines and the chambers are left open for anyone to access. No doubt that this opens Rand Water’s infrastructure to vandalism.
The residents did not only have to contend with water outages as a result of infrastructure failure but the ongoing loadshedding also impacts the flow of water, further exasperating airlocks that develop in the system causing a restricted flow to Jeppe, South Hills and Alexander Park reservoir that feeds large parts of the south, south east and north of the province.
In the absence of the Joburg executive mayor and his MMCs, it is high time that Gauteng shows some level of care to our residents and takes the lead in setting up an inter-governmental task team to deal with the vandalism and protect our key infrastructure.
Nico de Jager, DA Gauteng MPL
READER LETTER | Protect our infrastructure, deal with vandalism
Image: 123RF/Weerapat Kiatdumrong
Last week, large parts of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane were again left without water because of Rand Water’s inability to protect and maintain its infrastructure. This is exactly what happened towards the end of February 2022 when residents across the province were left without water for days on end.
During the repair work on the burst Palmietfontein line last week, it was discovered that there was evidence of vandalism in one of the chambers resulting in a burst pipe. This prompted the DA to visit various pumping stations and pipelines owned by Rand Water.
It is very worrying that during these oversight inspections, we discovered, particularly at the Primrose pipeline in Germiston, that there is no security at these pipelines and the chambers are left open for anyone to access. No doubt that this opens Rand Water’s infrastructure to vandalism.
The residents did not only have to contend with water outages as a result of infrastructure failure but the ongoing loadshedding also impacts the flow of water, further exasperating airlocks that develop in the system causing a restricted flow to Jeppe, South Hills and Alexander Park reservoir that feeds large parts of the south, south east and north of the province.
In the absence of the Joburg executive mayor and his MMCs, it is high time that Gauteng shows some level of care to our residents and takes the lead in setting up an inter-governmental task team to deal with the vandalism and protect our key infrastructure.
Nico de Jager, DA Gauteng MPL
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