A BURST pipe on 7 February in Mazisi Kunene (South Ridge) Road left residents as far down at Philip Avenue, Entabeni Hospital and Nazareth House without water for three days.
Angry over the delay on the part of authorities to deal with the crisis, a meeting was called with the head of Water and Sanitation to determine what procedures were in place to deal with pipe bursts and what future plans are set to deal with recurring water issues in the community.
According to a concerned resident who asked not to be named, the burst on 7 February should have been attended to as a matter of urgency.
Instead, she said, there were delays after calls were logged at the Call Centre and there was no notification of when a water truck would arrive to give residents water, and the supervisor on site was rude when questioned.
“As ratepayers we shouldn’t have to deal with this kind of service. There needs to be a back up plan. It is ridiculous for residents to be without water for three days, it is a lifesource,” she said.
At the meeting she asked officials present, head of Water and Sanitation, Ednick Msweli, deputy head of engineering and data services, Simon Scruton, acting manager of water design, Nischal Nundlall and acting manager for water network, Jabulani Mayise, to explain how the fault was handled and the response time when addressing the issue. She also wanted to know if funds were allocated for upgrades or replacement of pipes in the area.
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Commenting on the burst pipe matter, Msweli said the Department aimed to fix faults within a four-hour time span but said there are instances where repairs extend past this.
He admitted that in the case of the Mzisi Kunene pipe burst, the matter was poorly managed. Mayise pointed out that loadshedding put pressure on the pipes and was a contributing factor to the pipe burst.
Speaking on the issue of pipe replacement, Scruton said the Department had R92 billion in assets, which included 12 000km of water mains which needed to be cared for and checked on a regular basis.
“We do observe reactively and address areas where there is a need. We recently spent R2.1 billion on replacing pipes in the Outer West area. Pipe replacement is zone-based and we replace pipes in a specific area, such as the Durban CBD, based on pipe age. We have a database of all the lines and the age of these, and have operations which highlight issues to look at in areas which are candidates for replacements. We try to look after our assets and keep them in a good condition,” he said. Scruton said eThekwini had also embarked on a pressure management system where water pressure has been reduced to six bar.
“The most expensive solution is to replace the asset, therefore we have opted to rather reduce water pressure to cut down on bursts, which is something that Cape Town is also doing,” he said.
Mayise said the department usually only looked at replacement in areas where there were around eight burst pipes a year.
Msweli has however encouraged his team to investigate the infrastructure in the upper Glenwood and Mayville area.
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Regarding issues with sewage leaks in the area, such as those experienced in Pitcairn Road, as reported recently in Berea Mail, and this week in Helen Joseph Road and other secondary roads in the Glenwood area, Scruton said his department was in the planning stage of a project for sewer main replacement in the affected area.
“The planning is in the early days, however it has been flagged and is one of the older areas. A number of things affect the sewer lines including load shedding, which has affected the pump stations, community behaviour such as flushing of unsuitable items down toilets, and sewer mining, in addition to the old infrastructure,” he said.
Msweli urged residents to use the EWS Contact Centre WhatsApp number to report faults: 073 148 3477. He encouraged residents to give accurate addresses and information when reporting, and said references numbers are issued via the WhatsApp number.
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