Which reservoir your suburb hangs off decides how hard an outage hits you, and the storage that should ease it is still being built. Outages also leave work behind inside the boundary, which is where plumbing in Midrand comes in: air in the pipes, a meter turning on air, a geyser switched on half-empty. Below are the reservoir behind each suburb, why the high ground goes first, what happened in 2025–26, what is being built, and how to report an outage and check your own pipes when the water returns.
Midrand Water Outage:
Which Reservoir Feeds Your Suburb
The big Midrand water outages start outside Midrand. Rand Water pumps the water in bulk through its Palmiet pump station into Johannesburg Water's reservoirs and towers here, and when that bulk supply dips, the reservoirs drain, the towers empty or go on bypass, and the higher ground loses water first and gets it back last.
- 1Treatment works (Zuikerbosch)
- 2Palmiet pump station
- 3Bulk reservoir (Klipfontein)
- 4Midrand's reservoirs
- 5Tower: pressure for high ground
- 6Bypass: lower pressure
Which reservoir feeds your Midrand suburb
Find your suburb below. Some suburbs sit on more than one system, so neighbours a few streets apart can be on different ones.
Johannesburg Water stores Midrand's water in a handful of reservoirs and towers: Erand, Grand Central, President Park, Rabie Ridge, Randjesfontein, Country View and Development Bank.1,2 The main ones depend on Rand Water's Palmiet pump station. When Palmiet's pumping was cut for maintenance in May 2025, the systems Johannesburg Water listed as affected were Rabie Ridge reservoir, Grand Central tower, President Park tower, Erand reservoir and Country View reservoir,1 and its notice for the 2026 winter maintenance again listed Midrand among the systems hit when Palmiet's pumping was reduced.3
The suburb lists and storage figures in the table come from ourpower.co.za, an independent tracker that publishes Johannesburg Water's reservoir register and its daily status updates.4 Treat them as a guide rather than an official map. Where they can be checked, they match: Johannesburg Water's own figures for Erand are a 25 megalitre and a 9 megalitre reservoir and a 0.5 megalitre tower.5 "Lasts" is the tracker's arithmetic: how long a full reservoir would keep supplying at normal demand if nothing flowed in. Johannesburg Water's own target is 24 hours of storage in every reservoir.5
| Reservoir or tower | Midrand suburbs it supplies | Holds | Lasts at normal demand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Erand reservoir | Barbeque Downs, Blue Hills, Carlswald, Crowthorne, Glen Austin, Halfway Gardens, Halfway House, Kyalami, Noordwyk, Randjespark, Vorna Valley | 34 ML | About 25 hours |
| Erand tower | Carlswald, Crowthorne, Halfway Gardens, Halfway House, Noordwyk, Randjespark | 0.5 ML | About 3 hours |
| Grand Central reservoir | Glen Austin, Halfway Gardens, Halfway House, President Park, Randjespark, Vorna Valley | 30 ML | About 117 hours |
| Grand Central tower | Glen Austin, Halfway House, President Park, Randjespark | 6.5 ML | About 58 hours |
| President Park reservoir | Ebony Park, Glen Austin, Ivory Park, Kaalfontein, President Park, Rabie Ridge | 30 ML | About 19 hours |
| President Park tower | Ebony Park, Glen Austin, Kaalfontein, President Park, Rabie Ridge | 0.6 ML | About 4 hours |
| Rabie Ridge reservoir | Glen Austin, Rabie Ridge | 7.5 ML | About 24 hours |
| Rabie Ridge tower | Rabie Ridge | 0.75 ML | About 4 hours |
| Randjesfontein reservoir and tower | Randjesfontein | 0.8 ML and 0.6 ML | About 18 and 42 hours (last reported June 2026) |
Two things stand out. Erand supplies more suburbs than any other system on the tracker's list, with about a day's storage, and President Park, which serves the most stands, holds less than a day. The towers, which give the higher streets their pressure, hold a few hours at most.4 Country View and Development Bank, which Johannesburg Water also names, are not on the tracker,1,2 so ask Johannesburg Water if your street is on either.
Why the high ground runs dry first in a Midrand water outage
A reservoir gives pressure to the streets below its water level. The higher streets depend on a tower, and the tower is the first thing to go.
For the higher streets, Johannesburg Water pumps water up into a tower. At Erand, the pump station draws from the 9 megalitre reservoir and delivers it to a 0.5 megalitre tower raised 30 metres above the ground "to produce the required hydrostatic pressure" for the area around it.5 Fig. 1 shows the arrangement.
In an outage, it fails in a set order. As inflow drops, the reservoirs drain, and Johannesburg Water stops pumping to protect the system. In December 2025 it said pumping could not resume until the reservoirs reached safe threshold levels, and that several towers remained "empty or on bypass".6 On bypass, supply is routed around the tower and arrives with less pressure; the tracker warns that water "may trickle or briefly stop at peak times and on higher ground".4 Lower streets may barely notice. The top of a slope, and the upper floors of a three- or four-storey townhouse block, lose water first.7
Balancing the system can make it worse for the high ground. During the February 2026 recovery, ward councillor Annette Deppe told Daily Maverick that in the evenings water was diverted from Erand reservoir to systems at critical levels, including Grand Central towers, Rabie Ridge and President Park, and that as a result the high-lying areas of Midrand did not get water.7 In an update reported on 11 February, Johannesburg Water warned of "poor pressure to no water" in higher-lying areas on the Erand and President Park systems.2
The towers' size is the other half of it. The existing Erand tower holds 0.5 megalitres.5 On the tracker's figures it serves a daily demand of about 4,600 kilolitres, so a full tower covers roughly three hours.4 Any dip in bulk supply that lasts longer than an afternoon reaches the high ground before anyone else, and the high ground then waits until the reservoir is high enough for pumping to restart.
On high ground or high up in a block, you are first off and last on. Store water early, and expect low pressure for longer than the rest of your suburb: after maintenance, Johannesburg Water says full recovery takes several days.3
Midrand water outages in 2025–26: the timeline
Every one began with bulk supply. The wording is from Johannesburg Water's notices and the reports cited.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2 to 16 May 2025 | Rand Water maintenance at the Palmiet pump station. Johannesburg Water listed Rabie Ridge reservoir, Grand Central tower, President Park tower, Erand reservoir and Country View reservoir as affected, and warned that reservoirs "need to first build capacity after being empty".1 |
| December 2025 | Rand Water's planned maintenance on the Palmiet systems. After nearly a week of dry taps, Johannesburg Water called Midrand the hardest-hit area and said several towers were "empty or on bypass".6 |
| Late January to early February 2026 | About six days without water, and a residents' protest on 3 February. Accounts of the cause differ; see below.8 |
| 5 February 2026 | Johannesburg Water said Erand and Grand Central reservoirs were open and pumping again. Ward councillor Annette Deppe said that in the evenings water from Erand was diverted to systems at critical levels.7 |
| 11 February 2026 | Erand and President Park reservoirs and towers "supplying but declining", with "poor pressure to no water" possible in higher-lying areas.2 |
| 29 May to 2 June 2026 | Rand Water winter maintenance. Johannesburg Water's notice listed Midrand among the systems affected: no pumping from Palmiet for 12 hours on 29 May, then Palmiet pumping at 89% for the remaining 84 hours.3 |
| 17 July 2026 | The second, 12-hour phase, with Palmiet pumping at 78%.3 |
The January–February 2026 outage: accounts of the cause differ
Daily Maverick and GroundUp reported that it began when a motor connected to one of the pumps at Rand Water's Zuikerbosch treatment plant exploded on 27 January, and that once that was repaired, a leak found at the Klipfontein Reservoir inlet extended the outage.7,8
Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero gave a longer chain: emergency repairs at the Palmiet pump station from 26 January, a power trip at Zuikerbosch on 27 January that reduced the water feeding into the Palmiet system, and another power failure at Palmiet on 31 January that dropped the Klipfontein reservoir, "which supplies Midrand", to critically low levels. He said the leak was found on 1 February and repaired by 2 February.9 EWN dated the first disruption to 21 January, after a power failure at Zuikerbosch.10
Rand Water, for its part, said on 3 February that its "systems have fully recovered and pumping is at full capacity", and that "the Midrand area has a long-standing problem of high-water consumption exacerbated by growth of both formal and informal settlements".8 Johannesburg Water's operations manager pointed to a significant increase in demand that came with rapid development.10 What every account shares is that bulk supply faltered, and Midrand's storage could not carry the area until it recovered.
The new storage: Erand tower, Carlswald reservoir, Blue Hills tower
About 40 megalitres of extra storage is planned. Of the three projects, only the Carlswald reservoir has a target date in the reports below.
Johannesburg Water says the development in Midrand has outpaced its infrastructure, and that the three projects under way add about 40 megalitres to existing storage. The towers, in its words, are "intended basically to ensure that high-lying areas are also supplied without interruption".11
| Project | What it adds | Where it stood in August 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Erand tower and pump station | A 2 ML tower, 30 m high, and a new pump station beside the existing 0.5 ML tower, for Carlswald, Blue Hills, Kyalami and Barbeque Downs. Budgeted at R92 million.5 | About 95% complete but "temporarily suspended after the project budget was exhausted" (SABC, 13 August).12 96% complete and delayed by long-lead items (EWN, 25 August).11 No completion date published. |
| Carlswald reservoir | A new 20 ML reservoir.12 | Started in January 2026, 25 to 26% complete, and on track for July 2027.12,11 |
| Blue Hills tower | A new tower for the higher ground.11 | In design, delayed by land acquisition and objections. Johannesburg Water says it has instructed the Johannesburg Property Company to appoint a land valuer for the land procurement.11,12 |
The Erand tower matters most for the higher streets around Carlswald, Blue Hills and Kyalami: at 2 megalitres it is four times the size of Erand's existing tower.5 Until it and the Carlswald reservoir are in service, the pattern in section 2 is the one to plan around.
No water? Outage, burst or a leak on your side
Work out which one it is before you report anything or call anyone.
- Your street is dry too. It is supply. Check Johannesburg Water's daily notices, or the tracker page for your reservoir in the table above. If it is low or on bypass, the cause is upstream and the fix is Johannesburg Water's.13,4
- Only your property is dry. Check that your own stopcock is open, then look for water running in the street or at the meter. Leaks on the municipal meter or outside the boundary are reported to the City.14
- You have water, but the meter is racing. That is the leak question below.
How to check for a water leak after an outage
The City's own test is simple: "Turn off all taps, appliances and other water outlets. If the meter continues registering consumption, there may be a leak on the property."14 The timing matters. While supply is being restored, the meter can turn on air: Johannesburg Water says its meters respond to liquid, but "during restoration following a water outage, air comes with moisture, and the meter will respond accordingly", and it asks customers to keep their taps and domestic supply closed while it flushes the lines.15 Its restart procedure can include opening systems very gradually and flushing air from scours and hydrants.16
So wait until the water runs clear and steady, then close everything and watch the meter. If it still moves, the water is going somewhere on your side of the meter. That is when leak detection in Midrand is worth paying for: proving the leak on the meter and tracing it before anything is opened.
If the outage ran long, leave the geyser off at the board until a hot tap runs clean. A geyser that drained part-way while the water was off can burn out its element if it is switched on with air inside.
How to report a water outage in Midrand
Johannesburg Water's channels, as listed on its website on 22 October 2026.
| Channel | Details |
|---|---|
| Contact centre | 010 061 4470 or 0860 562 87417 |
| Fault email | fault@jwater.co.za, which Johannesburg Water says is for logging water-related incidents only17 |
| Outage notices by email | sms@jwater.co.za, to receive notifications of interruptions17 |
| X | @JHBWater13 |
| A WhatsApp channel linked from Johannesburg Water's website, for updates17 |
Give the street address and suburb, say whether your neighbours are dry too, and keep the reference number. Johannesburg Water's published turnaround target for a water outage is 24 hours.13 That is the target for a fault it logs; after a bulk failure or maintenance, it says the system takes "several days" to fully recover.3
If the water came back and something in the house did not, such as a geyser that will not heat, a meter that will not stop or a drip under a sink, send the call-out form below with your suburb and what you have checked. We phone you back.