Rand Water warned, in a statement released on Monday, that should loadshedding persist at escalated stages, Gauteng may be plunged into a reservoir blackout.
Rand Water sounds off alarm about possible Gauteng reservoir blackout
The province’s water supplier confirmed its battling with distribution challenges “as a result of power failures and high water consumption during [the] heatwave.”
Before Gauteng residents can enjoy clean running water on any given day, at least 5 000 megalitres are purified at the Zuikerbosch and Vereeniging plants.
Thereafter, purified water is channelled to various pump stations in Eikenhof, Mapleton, Palmiet and Zwartkopjes, “that further pump water to a total of 59 water storage reservoirs in our distribution network from which municipalities receive water to distribute to its residents.”
On 8 January 2023, Rand Water’s total reservoir storage level was at 76%. However, 24 hours later, storage levels saw a marked decline caused tby municipalities’ increased supply to residents, an unnatural spike in demand exacerbated by the ongoing heatwave in Gauteng.
To make matters worse, rampant loadshedding caused power supply failures at the two main purification plants.
“The power outage incident lasted for a period of six hours and affected Zuikerbosch pumping station at its Engine Room 4 which supplies almost 40% of Rand Water’s capacity,” Rand Water confirmed.
Consequently, Rand Water lost more than nine hours of supply capacity, which, in turn, impacted reservoir storage levels, which, on 13 January 2023, had dropped to 63%.
According to the latest data, Rand Water’s reservoir storage levels have since stabilised at a dangerous 30%, with municipalities staggering to keep up with water supply demands amplified by the excessively hot weather hanging over Gauteng.
“However, at this low level there were other reservoirs that were significantly impacted to be below 15%. When some of Rand Water reservoir levels are below 15%, the municipalities start experiencing inadequate to no supply to high lying areas in their networks.
“Rand Water continued engaging with its customers via the meetings and formal letters to request them to monitor water consumption in their respective areas and effect the necessary measures to manage high water consumptions during the heatwave,” the water supplier added.
If loadshedding continues at escalated stages, Rand Water warned, then Gauteng’s supply and purification systems could “drop to a point of [crashing] and [become] almost impossible [to] recover.”
Already, Rand Water’s Eikenhof booster station suffered a power failure.
“This incident caused a further depletion of Rand Water’s reservoirs levels leaving some reservoirs at 0% storage level,” the supply authority revealed.
While Rand Water is in the process of completing its generator installation project, the emergency power’s capacity will not cover its entire distribution network.
The water supplier, however, confirmed that as of Monday, 30 January 2023, systems have started stabilising and feeding reservoirs at maximum capacity.
“Full recovery, however, will be dependent on less frequent power failures,” Rand Water warned.
On Monday, Eskom issued an update on this week’s loadshedding schedule, which kicked off at Stage 4.