Few areas without water as Joburg recovers from outages, says Morero

Most Johannesburg residents now have household water following a series of power failures that affected key pumping stations, mayor Dada Morero, announced at a media briefing on Friday.

“The water supply status has normalised considerably compared to last Friday, 14 February,” said Morero.

“There may be a few areas that might still be experiencing no water, but this could be due to airlocks which our teams on the ground are attending to.”

The city’s water system was initially disrupted by power failures at the Eikenhof pump station on 10 February, followed by outages affecting both the Zwartkopjes and Eikenhof facilities on 11 and 12 February.

Additional incidents at Lethabo and Vereeniging as well as a City Power disruption from 16 to 19 February further complicated recovery efforts.

Joburg’s water recovery efforts under way

Morero said technical teams from Johannesburg Water and Rand Water were working together to restore service to the affected areas.

He also shared that the Alexander Park and Berea systems had stabilised, with customer complaints significantly declining as the teams addressed the airlock issues.

“We have approved extra teams to work during the week and weekend to attend to emergencies and backlogs,” Morero said.

The city has also begun recruiting additional fitters, welders and bricklayers to enhance maintenance capacity, he said.

Johannesburg Water has implemented several measures to address high water demand, including pressure valve maintenance, establishing new pressure management zones and proactive leak detection.

The utility has been implementing rotational water reduction since November 2024.

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Joburg mayor urges for conservation as water recovery continues

Morero emphasised that Johannesburg remains under Level 1 water restrictions and urged residents to practice water conservation.

“Customers are warned not to abuse water as this can lead to declaring Level 2 water restrictions,” he said, noting that the recent rainfalls provided opportunities for rainwater harvesting.

In an effort to promote responsible water usage, the city launched an educational awareness campaign with SABC on Thursday.

“Now more than ever, it is imperative that we change our habits when it comes to water use. We can all make a difference by introducing one small change a day,” the mayor said.

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Morero rejects allegations of deliberate water disruptions

Morero addressed reports of sabotage published in a local newspaper.

According to these reports, an audio recording captured officials discussing intentionally disrupting water supplies to undermine his leadership.

The newspaper reportedly said the audio clip was recorded in a clandestine meeting where two members of the mayoral committee, two ANC officials and a Rand Water official were allegedly discussing strategies on destabilising the mayor’s leadership by shutting down water flow from Johannesburg as long as possible.

Morero said these allegations suggest the water cuts “have been orchestrated to portray the mayor as unfit to secure an adequate water supply for residents” and that these claims would be taken seriously.

“These damning allegations will not be taken lightly and we will explore legal counsel and possible options, not ruling out approaching law enforcement agencies for a possible probe to investigate should these allegations be found to be legitimate.”

Separately, Morero mentioned an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption related to a water tanker contract, which is before the courts with internal auditors conducting an investigation.

As recovery efforts continue, Morero urged residents to report any persistent water issues to Johannesburg Water customer service.

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