On June 25, there was a “serious water leak” at the intersection of Arbroath and Nicol roads in Bedfordview.
Residents raised their concerns about litres of water that was flowing down the road.
Ward Clr Jill Humphreys also wrote:
“This burst on the corner of Nicol and Arbroath was reported and escalated during the morning of June 25.
Unfortunately, the department did not get to attend to it before about midday. The water wastage and damage to the road is sadly, not uncommon.
As councillors we have come to realise the resources of the responding departments are so limited that a three- to four-hour response time to an urgent callout is the status quo.
Our Bedfordview service delivery for water and sanitation includes a colossal area – Bedfordview, Edenvale and Boksburg North.
A handful of dedicated staff and contractors have to dash from one end to the other to chase the reference numbers.
There is no ‘dedicated team’ for an area.
Invariably they don’t have the right equipment and have to look for it. And they have to shut off the valves.
The consequence is the surrounding area is water restricted until the repair is completed and the valves reopened.
On average, this takes four to six hours. Then the ghastly mess is left for months on end.
Rehabilitation of water repairs is probably the single biggest cause of surface infrastructure disruption and mess.
No amount of councillor intervention or pressure makes any difference as there are rarely enough contractors nor is there suitable material to complete the job.
Probably the biggest failure in this process is the call centre. The heartbeat of service delivery.
For a callout department to respond, they have to have a reference number.
As we all know, the call centre for many years has been and is abysmally dysfunctional, not only now during lockdown.
No reference number, no response. This results in councillors becoming call centres.
Desperate residents trying to report, have our phone numbers and contact us.
We do our best to respond to all the calls, emails, WhatsApps, SMSs, messages on Facebook.”
Editor’s comment – The NEWS requested comment from City of Ekurhuleni by July 1.
At the time of publishing, no comment had been received.
