Burst water pipe problem in Elandshaven
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AN ELANDSHAVEN water problem in Visbaai Street was escalated to the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. Zhavandre Groenewald, who is a resident in the area, was concerned about the burst water pipe in that street.
On Sunday morning, the problem started and the water never stopped streaming out from the underground water system to a point where it was flowing towards an electrical box near Zhavandre’s neighbour’s house. He then had to dig up a hole in order for the water to flow and be redirected into the street. The problem was reported at 07:00 to the necessary Ekurhuleni officials and departments by Zhavandre, for which he obtained reference number 114 5083.
An Ekurhuleni representative said to him that he’d have to wait four hours and only then if the problem was not solved, he would have to call back. After calling back, he was informed that they don’t operate on Sundays.
“What are the emergency numbers for?” he asked the representative. The representative could not provide Zhavandre with an explanation. He was then told he should call back on Monday August 4. It was noted that Ekurhuleni only came out on Monday evening at around 21:00 to inspect, but did nothing to solve the issue.
The Ekurhuleni officials or the necessary Ekurhuleni department had still not come out on Tuesday August 5 and more water was wasted.
Zhavandre said on Thursday August 7 that after several calls and emails, the Ekurhuleni had come to fix the problem and that they had left a big mess, but it is fixed.
Emails had been sent to Councillor Chris Swanepoel, who forwarded the matter on to the necessary person/s.
Ekurhuleni’s official comment reads as follows:
The complaint was received by the Call Centre on Sunday morning just after 07:00. For some reason the plumber on standby did not receive it and Monday morning a team went out but could not do the necessary repairs. The pipe was repaired on August 6.
We have standby teams and operate for emergencies 24 hours and seven days a week. Standby teams should always go out to site and if they cannot attend they must report it to management. The matter will be addressed and rectified to prevent such incidents in the future.
