Litres of water running down the streets will become an unfamiliar sight in the metro soon, with the Rapid Response Unit set to hit the streets.
The metro, last Thursday, unveiled the rapid response vehicles which were acquired to curb water losses by speedily attending to burst and leaking pipe complaints in the region.
The six single cab bakkies have been fitted with enabling tools and branded “Water Burst Pipe first level response” for identification purposes.
For now, the vehicles have been allocated to the five Water and Sanitation Depots that experience the highest number of pipe bursts in their areas – namely, Alberton, Benoni, Germiston, Nigel and Tembisa.
The metro has nine depots attending to the entire city and each will ultimately have a dedicated Rapid Response Team consisting of two officials responsible for tackling all glitches related to water leaks in their areas.
According to metro spokesman Themba Gadebe, the purpose of the Rapid Response Teams is to ensure that complaints are attended to within the standard response time of 48 hours.
He said the teams are expected to respond quickly and effectively to water leaks in order to reduce water losses resulting from leaks and to prevent contamination of the flowing water.
“An increase in water loss has been a major challenge within the city for the past few years and this initiative will address this, as well as assisting in reducing the risk of damage to private property and infrastructure,” said Gadebe.
“As a scarce resource, water is purchased at a price for supply to residents who pay the municipality based on their consumption.
“The loss of water through leakages or burst pipes, therefore, affects the city’s revenue and increases the demand unnecessarily.”
The city’s Rapid Response Unit is expected to be fully operational by January 2015, where vehicles have already been allocated, and in early 2016 at the remaining depots, where the supply of dedicated vehicles is still pending.
Residents are, therefore, encouraged to report incidents to the 24-hour Services Call Centre on 086 054 3000.
