05 August 2019
Immediate Release

Please kindly note that the team currently finished draining the site of all the excess water. The team is working on ensuring that excavation is safe to work in. This they estimate should becompleted in two hours from 11:15.

Once the team is sure that the excavation is safe, they will start to loosen the flexible couplings, which is where the leak was coming from. The team is using flexible couplings because they need to remove a section of the 600mm pipe which is made of asbestos cement and retrofit it with a steel pipe as ac pipes are no longer being manufactured. New flexible couplings compensating for the 2 types of material will be manufactured.

The manufacturer for the fittings needed for the pipe have already been ordered. Estimated delivery of the fittings to site will be at 4. We estimate that we should start to fit them in around 4:30pm. If all goes according to plan repairs should be completed and water opened around midnight.

Water tankers can be found at the following points:

• Spar Shopping Centre, Broadacres
• Cnr. Runnymead and 3rd Street, Chartwell
• Cnr. Romney Close and 3rd Street, Chartwell
• Castellano complex
• Stonefields complex
• Cedar Lakes
• BP Garage, Broadacres Shopping Centre
• Cedar Creek
• Thorntree Complex In Cedar Avenue West
• Watercombe and Zandspruit rd, Farmall
• Royal Canin, Kyasands
• Agulhas and Weiland, Bloubosrand

Two roaming tankers have also been allocated to assist in the area.
Further updates will be provided as required on Johannesburg Water social media pages

• Twitter: @jhbwater
• Facebook: Johannesburg Water

Ends

For media enquiries:
Ms Eleanor Mavimbela
Officer: External Communications
T: +27 (0) 11 688 6672
M: +27 (0) 71 313 6327
E: Eleanor.mavimbela@jwater.co.za

Media Statement
19 July 2019

Johannesburg Water advises in the Fourways area of a major burst on the 600mm main at the river behind Talavera complex in Fourways, a contractor has been appointed for the repairs and will begin work on Monday morning -22 July 2019.

In order to ensure that repairs start on time on Monday, a JW  team will start to isolating/closing water from Sunday morning in order to ensure the pipe is water-free and ready for Monday morning welding, some areas will experience low pressure to no water from the commencement of the isolation.

Areas affected by this planned outage are, Needwood, Broadacres, Maroeladal, Chartwell, Farmall, Bloubosrand and Northriding. We estimate that the repairs may take a minimum of 48 hours and we have arranged for the placement of water tanks in the affected areas.

Water tanks locations:

• • Cedar Lakes

  BP Garage, Broadacres Shopping Centre

• • • Cedar Creek
      Thorntree Complex In Cedar Avenue West
      Spar Shopping Centre-
    • Broadacres
      Cnr. Runnymead and 3rd Street,
    • Chartwell
      Cnr. Romney Close and 3rd Street, Chartwell
    • Castellano complex
    • Stonefields complex
    • Farmall
      Watercombe and Zandspruit rd,
      Refill at Royal Canin –
    • Kyasands
      Agulhas and Weiland, Bloubosrand

Further updates will be provided as required on Johannesburg Water social media pages

• • • Twitter: @jhbwater
    • Facebook: Johannesburg Water

Ends

For media enquiries:

Cllr Nico de Jager

MMC: Environment and Infrastructure Services Department

M : 083 899 2127

E : NicoDe@joburg.org.za

Mr Isaac Dhludhlu

Manager: Marketing and Communications

T: +27 (0) 11 688 1577

M: +27 (0) 72 638 5346

E: Isaac.dhludhlu@jwater.co.za

ACTIVE LEAK DETECTION PROGRAMME

Johannesburg Water has an active leak detection programme that was approved as a part of a five year Water Demand Management strategy in August 2016.

The aim of this strategy is to implement various programmes that will ensure our water demand are reduced to within the limits of our allocation from Rand Water in terms of their Water Use License.

Johannesburg Water has 15 teams that do active leak detection on a daily basis in an effort to reduce water demand within the city.

• These are dedicated teams that survey our water infrastructure on a daily basis picking up leaks that are either visible and not reported or not visible.
• The process that is followed is that they will inspect the water reticulation for any visible leaks, they will also use acoustic listening sticks (equipment that uses the sound the leak makes) to determine if there might be a leak on the system but not visible.
• The visible leaks are reported daily through the SAP PM system to the relevant depot who would then dispatch a plumbing team to repair the leak.
• If they through making use of the listening stick pick up a sound that might be invisible it is further investigated by using ground micro phones and leak noise correlators. These types of equipment allows the operator to pin point the invisible leak more accurately since it is not visible. This will then allow once reported the plumbing team to excavate at the correct location and repair the leak.
• These leak detection teams cover more than 10,500km of our water infrastructure per annum. This is more that 85% of the infrastructure length.
• On average per annum these teams report: 1,456 burst pipes, 5,227 leaking meters, 341 leaking valves and 217 leaking hydrants. These leaks are repaired by the network plumbing teams within the specified response times.
• Annually 8,100 Ml of water is saved due to this programme.

Pipe replacement Programme

Johannesburg Water has implemented a pipe replacement programme over the past five years. By the end of June 2017, 499 km of water pipes have been replaced. Going forward into the next five years, Johannesburg Water plans to replace a further 633 km of water pipes. In replacing these pipes the burst frequencies will reduce and water losses will be minimised.

In the financial year of 2017/18 thus far in:

• Midrand, we have replaced 3500 meters of pipe
• Sandton, 15 171 meters of pipe has already been replaced
• Roodepoort and Diepsloot, we have placed 2281 meters of pipe
• Deep South Region, 3627 meters of pipe have been replaced

Water is a scarce commodity and Johannesburg Water is committed to provide a sustainable water and sanitation supply to all residents of the City. Level 1 water restrictions are still in place and will be enforced by fines to consumers who contravened the Water Services By-law and consumers are urged to report non-compliance by phoning the JMPD 24/7 hotline on 011 758 9650.