Northmead Water Tower and Pump Station Update

by Cllr. Lornette Joseph — DA Councillor for Ward 27 in Ekurhuleni

Date: 13 July 2022

Release: Immediate

Type: Media statement

The Democratic Alliance in Benoni is aware of residents having to endure water outages during loadshedding. This has been attributed to the Northmead Water Tower having had its telemetric control panel placed on the Block 10 electricity grid whilst the physical water pumps were on the Block 16 grid. This resulted in water outages when each block was being load shed.

This however was rectified on Friday 1 July 2022, when the fixing of a cable fault resulted in a reset in the placement of the control panel back to a separate electricity grid to that of the water pumps. Although this has not fully resolved the water outage issue, water interruptions now only taking place when the Block 16 grid is being load shed.

It is worth noting that the DA has been at forefront of this issue since Cllr Lornette Joseph took office as Councillor in the Ward. Upon taking office, Councillor Joseph identified the need for a constant and uninterrupted power supply for the pumping of water as a priority issue in the ward. In 2021, the DA submitted a petition to Council voicing the concerns of frustrated Benoni residents regarding the intermittent water supply related to the ongoing delays in the upgrade of the Northmead Water Tower and the fact that there is no generator at the existing pump station. This petition was subsequently escalated to Parliament.

In an effort to find a working solution, Councillor Joseph had a virtual meeting on the 4th of July 2022 with the Head of Department for Water and Sanitation, the Head of Department for Energy, along with officials from the Office of the MMC for Water, Sanitation and Energy in the City of Ekurhuleni and the Chief Engineer for the Benoni Water Depo to discuss a way forward on the viability of putting the water tower onto a generator to mitigate future interruptions.

Resulting from this meeting, the Department has undertaken to investigate the possibility of putting in a generator and have committed to give feedback to the Ward Councillor by the 15th of August 2022.

The community will be informed on the way forward once the investigation has been concluded by the department.

Cllr. Lornette Joseph

DA Councillor in Ward 27 Ekurhuleni

083 847 4510