On Saturday evening, January 23, heavy rain fell over the South of Johannesburg resulting in the home of Chris and Delia Pretorius, on Maluti Street, Winchester Hills, being flooded.
The CHRONICLE was at the Pretorius’ home on Wednesday, January 20, regarding a water leak in the road right outside their driveway.
“On Friday, a workforce arrived to dig up the road again to fix the leak, but the hole was left open to the elements. Electrical wiring was also left exposed,” said Delia.
“On Saturday, January 23, we were enjoying a braai when the rain began. We even commented on how nice it was to hear the rain. Not long after, we heard a gushing sound and when Chris went to have a look, the hole in the road at our driveway had completely filled up with water and had flooded over. It looked like a waterfall and was gushing down our drive, through the garage and out into the back garden, resulting in our back garden being flooded and the back wall being completely knocked over from the force of the water.
“The torrent of water was about to come into our home but we managed to divert it with lots of towels. The mess it left is unbelievable and the water at one stage was about 50 centimetres up the garage wall,” added the Pretorius’.
When the CHRONICLE went to the Pretorius’ home on Monday afternoon, the hole was still open. “At one stage we were praying for rain, now we’re praying we don’t get any more until the hole and burst pipe is repaired,” they said.
Eleanor Mavimbela, external communications officer, marketing and communications from Johannesburg Water, said: “There have been a few burst pipe repairs performed on this line. The reason for the burst pipes is that there is an old AC (asbestos cement) line which needs to be replaced.With regards to the incident over the weekend, the team on site were done with repairs and they unfortunately could not refill the hole immediately as it started to rain , but they did secure the site. The team went back on site to refill the hole on Wednesday, January 27. It is important to note that mitigation measures are in progress with 321km (water) and 72 (sewer) pipes having been replaced since the commencement of the multi-year pipe replacement programme in 2013/14 to replace 709 km and 277 km of pipe in various parts of the city by June 2017.”
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