Dowerglen resident Julia Huntington has raised concerns over municipal employees allegedly wasting water while repairing infrastructure.
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Huntington’s concerns came to light after staff members from the City of Ekurhuleni Department of Water and Sanitation worked on a water pipe near her property on January 31.
Huntington said when she opened her tap last Monday, barely a trickle of water flowed from it.
She said while the employees were working on the infrastructure, the fire hydrant was open for two hours from 08:00 to 10:00.
“From what I have been told is that they do not know how to turn the water off,” said Huntington.
Huntington said to get around this problem and conduct repairs, the staff use a trick to lower the water pressure.
She explained staff from the department opened the fire hydrant located on the pavement near her property on Milford Avenue to lower the pressure in the pipe.
Although this lowers the pressure in the pipes, this means water constantly flows out of the hydrant.
Huntington said in recent years she has seen this method employed two or three times to conduct repairs on the waterline.
After researching the flow rate of fire hydrants, Huntington learned that hydrants operate between 1 892 and 9 463 litres per minute.
“Using the lowest amount but rounding it up to 2 000 litres per minute, we can assume 240 000 litres of water or close to that amount was lost when the hydrant was opened,” said Huntington.
She said to make matters more complicated, a nearby stormwater drain is blocked, so all the water which flowed out of the hydrant dammed on nearby Milford Avenue.
According to information found on the CoE’s website, it is illegal to use a fire hydrant to obtain water for purposes other than firefighting, unless authorised by the water authority.
Any person who uses a fire hydrant without the appropriate authorisation is liable to prosecution and a fine.
Should there be any damage to a fire hydrant during unauthorised use, the repair cost plus a 15% administration fee will be levied against the concerned person. This applies to CoE departments.
CoE highlighted that fire hydrants are devices for extracting water from pipelines and water distribution systems for firefighters in the event of a fire.
Only in special cases will CoE permit a person to utilise a fire hydrant and only at specific geographical positions.
On its website, the city appealed to residents to email details such as the address, date and time, vehicle registration and any photographs of fire hydrants being misused to watermeters@ekurhuleni.gov.za
Highlighting her concerns, Huntington said there needs to be an ethos and it needs to start with the management of the departments.
She said by using the hydrant not only cuts corners but wastes water.
On February 2, the NEWS sent a request for comment to CoE, requesting comment on the matter by 15:00 on February 4.
In its enquiry, the NEWS asked the city why officials from the department were originally on-site, whether they had opened the fire hydrant and, if so why, what the flow rate of the city’s fire hydrants located in residential suburbs like Dowerglen are, whether the city was aware of the blocked drain on Milford Avenue and, if so, what was being done about it.
At the time of going to print, no comment had been received.
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