Taps run dry at OR Tambo International Airport
· Citizen
Taps ran dry for about five hours at OR Tambo International Airport this weekend due to what the airport called “ongoing maintenance work” on its social media pages.
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The water outage occurred across both domestic and international terminals between 6am and 11am on Saturday.
It follows a series of other infrastructural challenges at the national key point, including several power outages late last year, and a substantial roof leak in the domestic departures terminal during a storm in January.
A fire disrupted international flights at Cape Town International Airport 10 days ago.
Early mornings are some of the busiest times at the gateway to South Africa.
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Frustration follows water outage
An irate tenant said there was nowhere to ablute, nowhere to wash hands.
A restaurateur said he lost R10 000 in revenue “because not only could I not brew coffee, but we also could not wash dishes, kitchen staff could not wash their hands. In a short space of time it became a health risk”.
The restaurateur said if only 10 of the several eateries at the airport lost the same revenue as their establishment did, Acsa’s “urgent repairs” cost tenants several hundred thousand rands. “But we will not be compensated. We didn’t know it was coming,” he said. Passengers were irate.
“This is really not acceptable. We have family waiting for flights and no toilets are open. Do you not have any back-up water supply? How long will this take for water to be restored?” a traveller wrote on Facebook while DA Joburg mayoral candidate Helen Zille called the outage “incredible in the true sense of the word”.
Other comments online showed a measure of South African humour, born out of frustration.
One X user wrote: “On the brighter side, two 20+ yr old cad res sons won a R263m tender to provide water from truck tankers. Why get cheap water from your taps, when ANC elites kids can deliver it to within 15kms from your home. Plan B is when you have to buy Sahpra-approved containers from them.”
Another said: “Imagine being an international tourist landing in Johannesburg… first stop Ocean Basket for seafood… and the sign says: ‘We’re out of water.’ Welcome to Joburg, where even the fish are confused about how a whole city runs out of water.”
No comment from Acsa
The Citizen was unable to obtain comment from Acsa by the time of publication.
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