Johannesburg Water (JW) has patted itself on the back for successes in the implementation of a strategy that has seen the turnaround time for burst pipes reduced from 48 hours to 24 hours, resulting in continued supply of the precious resource across SA’s financial and economic hub.
Gauteng’s 11 municipalities are experiencing a continual water crisis, with supply already intermittent in large parts of the province. Crumbling water infrastructure, dry weather conditions, illegal water connection, leaks and burst pipes and high non-revenue water (water treated and pumped but lost or unaccounted for before it reaches a customer), worsen the situation.
The metros of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane are no exceptions as they are currently on level 1 water restrictions, which prohibit residents from watering gardens, washing cars and filling swimming pools during peak hours.
The business sector has said the water supply crisis buffeting the three metros was yet another example of the breakdown of service delivery as the government struggles to maintain infrastructure crucial to economic growth.
Joburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala said active and passive leak detection had the potential to reduce water demand by huge quantities. “In the 2023-24 financial year, 12,100km of water pipelines were surveyed, and 2,396 burst pipes, 6,727 leaking meters, 442 leaking valves and 259 leaking hydrants were reported and mostly attended to,” she said.
“This intervention has provided an estimated water demand reduction of 9,457 megalitres per annum. The leak detection programme has a qualitative and quantitative impact in the reduction of physical losses. Because pipes are buried underground it results in leaks and losses going undetected if specialised technology and programmes are not implemented. Leak detection allows for the tracing and locating of these undetectable leaks, expanding our reach to curbing physical losses.”
Shabalala said Johannesburg Water’s service level standards indicated a 48-hour turnaround time for reported water bursts. “However, in order to reduce system losses, we have reduced the 48 hours to a 24-hour turnaround time for repairs.
“This higher internal target sets the bar higher and creates a culture of urgency and accountability to the repair of leaks and bursts, and thus an overall improvement of physical losses,” she said.
“We have been consistently embarking on first-level response interventions, which entails isolation of water where bursts and leaks are reported or known and then later followed by repair. This promotes greater momentum to curbing physical losses.”
The reduced response time of 24-hours was driven by the water entity’s strategy to “reduce physical losses, and it is intrinsically linked to JW’s turnaround strategy”. The target was mostly achieved by the deployment of additional resources to isolate “bursts and repairs”.
“However, there are certain jobs that take longer to repair due to complex technical challenges on site. JW is also looking at ensuring that the teams have the required tools of trade, create a safe working environment and drive efficiency and productivity.”
Shabalala said the success of the initiative meant improved continuity of water supply to residents and “better water security to the city as a whole”.
In October 2022, JW announced it would spend R340m over three years to improve its infrastructure to ensure continuous supply of water to the metro’s six-million residents.
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