Midrand water crisis: Grand central reservoir remains offline after week-long disruptions

Joburg Mayor Dada Morero said that the Grand Central reservoir in Midrand, which supplies areas including Glen Austin and parts of Waterfall, remained offline.

The water disruption was triggered by a leak at Rand Water’s Klipfontein pump station and was worsened by a power outage at the Zuikerbosch treatment plant last week.

As a result, residents in Midrand and Tshwane had been without water for at least six days.

Frustrated residents in Midrand took to the streets in protest on Monday morning.

During a media briefing in Midrand, Morero, who was accompanied by Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister David Mahlobo, said water tankers were being deployed to support affected areas while the system was gradually restored.

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The Grand Central reservoir remained offline despite improvements in four of the five reservoirs supplying the area.

Morero said Grand Central failed to reach satisfactory operating levels and had been isolated to prevent further strain on the "fragile network".

The reservoir was severely affected by a major Rand Water leak at the Klipfontein station, where subsequent infrastructure failures drained more than 450 million litres of water per day, driving the system to near collapse.

Morero said: “Grand Central we are still working on it, monitoring it. It has not reached the percentage of the levels that we wanted to reach.”

Mahlobo warned residents not to hoard water as recovery continued.

“Immediately, you start to hog it, then the system still remains vulnerable. You can actually take us one or two steps back.”

Officials warned that reopening Grand Central too soon could trigger new pipe bursts and undo maintenance progress