A view of Charlotte Maxeke Hospital. (Gallo Images/Sharon Seretlo),
- Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital is among those affected by a water outage in Johannesburg.
- The hospital reported low water pressure on Monday.
- Johannesburg Water has attributed the outage to “the combination of poor supply and high demand”.
Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital is affected by a water outage that has left taps dry in a large part of the city.
Johannesburg Water confirmed that the hospital had been “greatly impacted by the water supply challenges”.
The water utility said technical teams had been dispatched to the hospital on Monday night to “find solutions to boosting their supply”.
Gauteng Department of Health spokesperson Khutso Rabothata said the hospital began experiencing low water pressure in the early hours of Monday morning.
“Following an investigation by technicians, it was discovered that Johannesburg Water had cut the water supply to the facility’s bulk water tanks on Friday. As a result, hospital management has implemented measures to prioritise emergency cases and divert all elective surgeries to nearby facilities until the water challenges are resolved by Johannesburg Water,” said Rabothata.
He added that alternative water supply had been secured from Johannesburg Water and would be supplemented with bottled water.
Rabothatha said:
Engagements with Johannesburg Water are ongoing to expedite a solution.
Johannesburg Water said the Parktown 2 Reservoir was “critically low to empty”.
“This is due to the combination of poor supply and high demand. Poor pressure to no water is expected in the supply zone. Johannesburg Water’s teams continue to investigate the supply and demand side of the system without finding the cause of sudden poor supply and high demand.
“The teams continue investigations into finding the cause for the poor supply and addressing airlocks. These investigations require considerable time. The reservoir has been reconfigured to boost incoming supply, and there is no estimated time of restoration at this stage,” the utility said.
Johannesburg Water also said the Berea Reservoir had declined but was “supplying fairly”.
“Poor pressure may occur while supply is reconfigured to boost supply at the Parktown 2 Reservoir.
“The Dunkeld Reservoir is critically low to empty. The inlet remains open, but the reservoir is affected by the capacity of Parktown 2 Reservoir. Poor pressure to no water is expected in the supply zone.”
READ | Johannesburg Water investigates causes of outages amid high consumption claims
News24 reported that Johannesburg was facing severe water shortages on Monday, with reservoirs running low and many areas experiencing outages.
For the past two years, the city has run out of water during the month of September due to “increased consumption” amid warm weather.
On Monday, residents of Carlswald, Roosevelt Park, Killarney, Hyde Park and Illovo reported that they had been without water for up to six days.
According to Johannesburg Water, residents are consuming water faster than bulk water distributor Rand Water can deliver.
At a Rand Water imbizo on urgent water issues and potential solutions to secure water supply in the future, the utility said Johannesburg lost around 40% to 50% of its water due to leaks and other issues.