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The Executive Mayor of Johannesburg, Cllr Kabelo Gwamanda, was this morning alerted to a recurring water outage that has affected the residents of Parkwood and surrounding areas. 

Alarmingly, the outages were said to be recurring with over 15 repair incidents undertaken in the same area over the last 18 months. 

As a responsive and responsible government, the Executive Mayor immediately dispatched a team comprising the City Manager, Mr Floyd Brink, the Chief Operations Officer of the City, the Managing Director of Johannesburg Water, the Regional Head of Johannesburg Roads Agency and the Executive Head of Citizen Relationships and Urban Management in the City. 

The team has duly reported that it has visited the site and was met by representatives of the Residents Forum who provided an account of the challenges they face and the seemingly unsatisfactory workmanship of the repairs done previously.

The City Manager has confirmed that he has made the following directions for immediate action: 

1. Backfilling to commence tomorrow morning 

2. Repairs currently being monitored for visual leaks and everything is currently in order for backfilling to commence tomorrow morning. 

3. Construction of Valve boxes to commence simultaneously with backfilling that includes a fill blanket over the pipework and G5 subgrade material. 

4. Road layerworks to be done by JRA including final asphalt surface reinstatement from tomorrow

5. Estimated completion time is 15 days

“As the City we are also pleased to share that there is a long-term project aimed at replacing the water and sewer infrastructure in and around Parkwood. The project is in the final design stages and commencement of the 13km pipe replacements should commence on 01 July 2024” said City Manager, Floyd Brink. 

“We have also commenced work with the Parkwood sewer pipe replacement project and it is being implemented in 5 phases. To date, 3 phases are complete constituting approximately 10km. A contractor for Phase 4 was appointed on the 9th of February and the scope includes 3km of pipelines. 

Planned commencement of works is 01 April 2024 and the completion date is December 2024” added Mr Brink.

Amongst the challenges of Parkwood is ageing infrastructure. A majority of the water pipelines are 70 years and older and the pipe replacement project is intended to replace these pipes and the City wishes to assure residents of its commitment to resolve the water problems with the utmost urgency and professionalism. 

Issued by the City of Johannesburg