Rand Water’s failure to secure its infrastructure leaves residents without water

1 March 2023

The lack of proactive maintenance and securing of Rand Water’s infrastructure across the province has resulted in many residents without access to a reliable supply of water.

Today, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng conducted an oversight inspection of the Rand Water pipeline in Primrose, Ekurhuleni. We were dismayed to discover that the Rand Water infrastructure is not properly secured which meant that Rand Water is not doing regular site visits on its infrastructure and also not proactively maintaining infrastructure.

See pictures here, here, here and here.

We found that the water chambers are left open with easy access for vandals to tamper and vandalize infrastructure.

The bursts since last Thursday left residents of Primrose and surrounding areas, Malvern, Bezuidenhout Valley, Klipfontein View, Alexandra and Yeoville without access to water as the system is battling to recover due to demand being higher than the capacity to pump water to reservoirs.

The longer repairs take the longer residents are without water. This means low pressure to no water for higher lying areas as reservoirs take longer to recover.

In addition, the lack of security at the Rand Water site is very worrying as it also poses a danger to our residents, particularly children who may play around the infrastructure.

See video here.

There is an urgent need for a plan to be put in place to secure all our critical infrastructure from vandalism and tampering.

We once again urge all our residents to use water sparingly, report leaks and allow the systems to properly recover as it may take a few days before water levels are back to normal.

Issued by Nico De Jager, DA Gauteng Spokesperson for Infrastructure Development, 1 March 2023