Unrepaired water leak reports pour in
Residents from across the Highway area have reported that thousands of litres of drinkable water has been wasted due to unrepaired water leaks.
A CONSTANT stream of reports have flowed in from irate Highway residents after reported water leaks are left unattended for weeks on end and millions of litres of the life-sustaining resource is wasted.
Brian Field, a New Germany businessman, said he calculated that more than 7 million litres of drinkable water was wasted after a repair job took more than 12 days to be complete.
“We reported the issue on Friday, 22 January via the WhatsApp number and just received an automated response that it would be attended to,” he said.
Five days later no repairs had been done and Field opted to rather call the Water Department directly. He received a reference number and, on Tuesday, 2 February, six days later, the leak was attended to.
“The section of the paving that was ripped up for the repair will need to be redone and we will have to fork out money to replace it. The Roads Department will replace the section of tar, but who knows when that is going to happen,” he said. “We constantly see adverts on TV telling us to save water at home. We are possibly saving between 10 to 15 litres and here, from just one leak, we have lost millions of litres of water!”
Westville resident, Kevin Allan, said he reported this issue of water trickling out from the tar along Saltfleet Road to the eThekwini Municipality via its eServices line on Sunday, 7 January.
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He attached two photos alongside the relevant information and the street address.
His email was responded to on Tuesday, 26 January and he was given a reference number. The email noted: “Apologies for the delay in response due to backlog.”
He replied to the email a few minutes later to say the problem had since worsened and water was now flowing heavily from the hole in the ground.
As at Thursday, 4 February, the water leak had not been repaired and, in a follow up email, Allan noted the road had started to break away due to the constant water flow.
The leak was repaired on Friday, 5 February.
“What is the point of being a good citizen and reporting these water leaks if nothing is going to be done about it and hundreds of thousands of litres of water are just going to waste?” he queried.
In another incident, an Underwood Road couple had water run through their property for a month from a water leak on their verge. Morne Robins and Julie Van Wyk said their problems started on 21 November last year. This leak was repaired in late January this year. When a pipe burst in the road outside their home, it was repaired and the section was resurfaced to be level with their driveway.
Due to this, when it rained, water would flow freely onto their property and cause flooding. A municipal team was sent in on Wednesday, 27 January and the affected section of the driveway was redone and, in the process, another leak was caused. At the time of publication, this leak has not been repaired.
The eThekwini Municipality did not respond to questions by the time of going to print.
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