Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda provided an update after a lightning strike caused water outages in Johannesburg for the second time in two weeks. (Screenshot/X/@CityPowerJhb)
- A lightning strike has tripped Rand Water’s Eikenhof pump station again.
- Two weeks ago, another lighting strike started a series of water outages in the City of Johannesburg.
- Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda said the impact of the lightning strike was being assessed.
The Eikenhof pump station has tripped again due to a suspected lightning strike at the Orlando substation on Monday night.
The latest outage comes after more than two weeks of water woes for parts of Johannesburg.
Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda said City Power and Johannesburg Water technical teams had been working with Rand Water to investigate the source of the trip and its impact.
The last widespread water outage, which lasted for two weeks, was caused by three power failures at Eikenhof. The first outage was caused by a lightning strike at a City Power substation that supplies the pump station.
@CityofJoburgZA Executive Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda visiting Orlando substation following a trip on Monday evening at 20h45, which affected Eikenhof substation feeding Rand Water. The outage, which lasted for about two hours, is suspected to have been caused by thunderstorms and… pic.twitter.com/S9HDplazzd
— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) March 18, 2024
As the system was unable to pump water, the flow to Johannesburg, Rand West, Mogale City, Rustenburg, Merafong and some mines was affected.
The City of Johannesburg has since put forward a proposed infrastructure development plan, which will be tabled in council in May, to address its ailing water infrastructure.
The proposed development plan will seek to create regulations that will ensure that infrastructure is replaced and maintained in the future.
The City has a R1 billion water renewal and replacement budget, but an estimated R3 billion a year is needed to maintain the infrastructure.
This deficit is the reason for the R27 billion water infrastructure backlog.