Over 7000 households in Diepsloot will now have access to a constant water supply thanks to a new 25 mega litres reservoir.

It was launched on Tuesday by Councillor Nico De Jager, Member of Mayoral Committee, Environment and Infrastructure Services, and Ntshavheni Mukwevho, Managing Director of Johannesburg Water.

Dedicated storage

Diepsloot was previously supplied directly through a Rand Water bulk main which was connected to the Pretorius Rand reservoir. This feed did not provide storage for Diepsloot and the surrounding areas including Dainfern and the new Steyn City and could only supply to 7425 households.

The new reservoir, which has been in construction since May 2015 at a cost of R55 million, will address these issues thanks to a storage retention capacity of 28 hours.

“The absence of a dedicated storage to supply these demands was a risk in terms of continuous water supply and security to the area,” De Jager noted.

“This reservoir will ensure that Johannesburg Water is able to do maintenance without having to suspend service in the area and this will improve lives for the better,” he continued.

Delivering on infrastructure projects

He further added, “As the Municipality of the City of Johannesburg, we strongly believe that we are turning the corner with regards to the capacity to deliver on infrastructure projects timeously and ensure that scarce resources are directed towards economic development.”

“We all know that incapacity and under-spending in infrastructure projects deprives communities of essential amenities. It is for this reason, therefore, that we will continue building an effective project management capacity and leverage from strategic partnerships.”

The Reservoir is also critical and strategic for Johannesburg Water’s water supply and distribution to comply with the new requirements by Rand Water to ensure JW distributes water directly into its network as opposed to previous arrangement where most water supplies into Diepsloot was directly fed by Rand Water.