As load shedding plagued the country this past week Johannesburg residents were faced with the reality that their water supply could also be jeopardised by the rolling blackouts.

In a statement released this week Johannesburg MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Nico de Jager said the City’s water utility, Johannesburg Water, was working alongside City Power to ensure that residents do not have to face water cuts as well.

“When load shedding of four or more hours is experienced, pockets of areas will have water shortages or even low pressure. This is because Johannesburg Water uses electricity to pump water from the reservoir into the towers,” De Jager explained.

He said that the City was in the process of putting mobile generators to assist during these outages. “But we still encourage resident to ensure they have enough water at and to last the duration of an outage.”

Minimising impact on water supply

“I have met with management of both Johannesburg Water and City Power to negotiate ways that will assist to minimise impact on water towers when load shedding is implemented.

“Johannesburg Water will communicate with City Power when water levels are running low at certain towers. City Power will then ensure that power supply is restored to that specific area,” he said.

“Johannesburg Water is committed to provide a sustainable water and sanitation supply to all residents of the City and level 1 water restrictions are still in place and will be enforced by fines to consumers who contravened the Water Services By-laws,” De Jager concluded.