Helen Joseph Hospital resorts to ‘unofficial connections’ to ease water crisis
Helen Joseph Hospital CEO Dr Rodney Pheto says the facility has had to resort to “unofficial connections” to ensure continued access to water.
The hospital has been battling with low water pressure since the weekend.
Wards affected include the emergency department, ICU and various wards on the upper floor of the hospital.
Pheto says there was a temporary improvement in water supply from midnight until 6am on Tuesday.
"Overnight there was a temporary improvement, because of the low water consumption at night as people are sleeping and there are a few staff members at the hospital. Between midnight and 6am we had water in all the nine floors of the hospital.
“Currently, the same challenges are still there as consumption picked up after 6am."
Pheto says the hospital might need to undergo a major infrastructure overhaul.
"The tanks were able to fill up because of the temporary measures which we did. Connections which are not official connections but it was a case of it's a desperate situation calling for desperate measures.
“We are going to continue with that because, at the end of the day, the only way the hospital can have water is to ensure that the tanks are full so that they can triple down the building from top to bottom.
"Just to sum it up we are still in a crisis."
"We cannot afford to close the hospital, we are going to continue diverting intermittently every 4-6 hours depending on the water pressures,” adds Pheto.
Hospital management hopes to meet with technicians from Johannesburg Water and the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development on Tuesday to discuss the way forward.
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