Major water outages hitting South Africa’s richest city could last more than a week

Executive Mayor of Johannesburg Dada Morero has warned Johannesburg residents they may experience up to seven days without water due to upcoming maintenance. 

Briefing the media on the planned Rand Water maintenance, which is set to take place from 6 January at 2 pm to 8 January at 8 am, Morero said that water outages and disruptions should be expected for up to seven days as the system recovers. 

This is the final phase of Rand Water maintenance, and the third of three planned phases for the December 2025, January 2026 period. 

The 54-hour maintenance session will take place at the Eikenhof pump station.

Morero said the maintenance is “critical to balance infrastructure” and necessary to ensure long-term water supply. 

The reservoirs affected by the maintenance include Roodepoort Deep, Fleurhof, Doornkop, Middlelands one and two, and the Bram Fischer Reservoir. 

Additionally, “during the maintenance, the volume of bulk water supplied to the water network will be significantly reduced and as a result, affected reservoirs will gradually deplete, and residents may experience low water pressure or outages,” Morero said. 

“After maintenance ends and pumping resumes on 8 January 2026,” the mayor warned, “the system will not recover immediately.”

The infrastructure will only be stabilised after seven days, according to Morero. Residents in affected areas could, therefore, be without water for up to a week. 

When asked for clarification, Morero stated that, in fact, water outages could be more than seven days in some areas. 

“We are setting a seven-day period, but yes, there might be instances where we don’t fully recover after 7 days,” he said. 

The mayor said that both stationary and roaming water tankers will be deployed to provide alternative water to affected communities.

Should the maintenance exceed the planned seven-day interruption period, tankers will be deployed as needed, said Morero.

Rand Water stated that the first phase of the scheduled maintenance was completed in December and successfully carried out. Each phase was planned to become smaller in scale and impact.

The second phase of maintenance, however, was abandoned and remains incomplete, due to a “technical issue experienced by Rand water.” It will be postponed to a later stage. 

This comes as the city is plagued by water woes due to years of insufficient investment and maintenance in the system.

Johannesburg loses a significant portion of its water, with figures showing close to 50% classified as “non-revenue water”, meaning it’s lost through leaks, theft, or not billed, with about half of that being physical leaks from aging pipes.

Specifically, around 35-40% of water pumped into the city is wasted through leaks, equating to hundreds of millions of litres weekly, highlighting severe infrastructure issues. 

Drinking water contaminated with sewage

While updating the public on the scheduled maintenance, the mayor additionally took the time to explain a recent cross-contamination of drinking water and sewage in Johannesburg, after residents complained of a strange smell on 29 December.

Morero explained that a water pipe burst in Bezuidenhout Valley on the corner of 10th Avenue and Albertina Sisulu Road. 

The damaged pipe was located near a manhole, and while the repair team waited for a welding crew to become available to repair the pipe, the sewer manhole became blocked and overflowed into the damaged pipe. 

The water pipe and the sewer pipe were both repaired by 30 December, but Rand Water found that the water was unsafe for consumption at all sampling points following the repairs. 

The system has been flushed, but as of 4 January, water quality tests showed that water remains unsafe for consumption at two sampling points near where the incident occurred. 

Residents in the area have been advised not to drink the water until Rand Water has announced it is safe to do so. Morero said that the supply to the affected areas should be safe for drinking within the next few days.