Residents at Olivewood Village South have raised concerns regarding continuous water outages.
Speaking to the Kempton Express, residents said the water outages started in June when a contractor damaged a main water line.
Although the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) attempted to repair the water line, residents claim they have low and inconsistent water pressure. They said their water pressure dips considerably every morning and evening.
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Some said many residents do not have hot water because the pressure is too low to push the water into geysers.
Ross Solomon said when residents heard the pipe had been hit, it was during a widely publicised general outage by Rand Water in Gauteng.
“It was difficult to know if the issue was related to the outage or the damage to the pipe.”
Solomon said the water outages badly affected his family and other residents.
“My personal and working life has been affected tremendously. I am a single dad and I have to battle to bathe my children at night. This means that sometimes I can only partially bathe them, which is a hygiene issue.
“I also have to plan my life around showers if I need to see clients, although I work from home, which does help,” said Solomon.
He said because of low pressure, they receive cold water at peak times. He had stayed off the premises more often than usual because of the lack of water pressure.
“We just want the water crisis to be fixed and have our normal lives back.
“There has been zero communication and support from the municipality,” he added.
Solomon said the call centre said to some residents the issue was resolved.
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“This is a blatant lie. They close tickets to look efficient,” said Solomon.
“The municipality gets multiple tickets a day from the community. Contractors dig a hole and change a valve but never seem to troubleshoot the problem or care about fixing the issue,” he said.
The Kempton Express visited Olivewood on September 3, and can confirm that residents had no water.
A few hours after the visit, however, water started flowing again.
Another resident who wished to remain anonymous said, “The estate agent and the owner of the unit we bought from never told us there was a water problem.”
“All I want is my money back and I can get a place without this problem.
“It is not fair to us or the people here, no-one seems to care. We have to travel to family in Boksburg to shower, and that costs us petrol. Since we moved in, we have been eating meals that don’t need water.
“It is frustrating to open the shower and have no water every morning,” he said.
Marieke Viljoen has been an Olivewood tenant for three and a half months.
She said when she viewed the unit in April nothing was said and according to the agent, there were no problems.
Viljoen said she specifically asked the agent as she was moving out of Greenstone in Edenvale because of constant water problems.
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“The agent knew about it and told me Olivewood never had issues.
“When the issues started on June 3, people on the Olivewood WhatsApp group referred to issues and problems they experienced in 2023.
“I guess there were problems, but it was not disclosed to me,” she said.
“I used to buy water but I cannot afford it anymore. I take my empty bottles and ask friends and family to fill up at their houses with tap water.”
“I have to travel 15 minutes to a friend daily to shower.
“If I have a late night because of work meetings, I can get home at 23:00 and I sometimes leave at 04:00 for Komatiepoort and cannot expect people to let me come over.
“I then wash out of a water bucket. I have to boil the water in a kettle because I have no warm water,” said Viljoen.
“I have to plan my whole life around having a shower,” she added.
Manja Breytenbach, the head marketing at M&T Development, said the status quo of water supply within the Olive Wood Precinct was a frustrating situation, not only to those living in the precinct, but to all affected parties.
“M&T Development shares in this frustration since we strive towards the creation of the highest quality living environments, wherever we are involved, and we take immense pride in what we do.”
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“We are unwavering in our belief that the realisation of this vision within the Olive Wood Precinct is manifesting, but we also accept the unreliable supply of water undermines this vision,” she added.
“It is important to understand the development of the Olive Wood is not an ad hoc sporadic occurrence but underpinned by the strict conformance to all statutory planning processes related to the establishment of a development area, which includes town planning processes and integrating the development precinct into the municipal services network.”
According to Breytenbach, years of meticulous detail and extensive planning had gone into the conceptualisation and roll out of the development.
“We confirm the provision of engineering services to the development were in accordance with the master planning of and in close association with the local authority, who remains the custodian of bulk engineering services within the municipal area.”
“At no point has the availability of water to the area ever been in question and therefore our own frustration regarding this situation.”
Breytenbach said the fact that water supply is delivered at lower than expected pressure levels, and thus not strictly in accordance with the envisioned engineering plan and strategy, is related to operational and functional considerations of the bulk municipal water network in the vicinity of Provincial Road R25.
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“It was a fact that the local authority did extensive work in this area to identify and correct network-related problems.
“We understand water supply problems are not limited to Olive Wood and the Serengeti Golf Estate, but also affect a larger supply and developments to the north and south,” said Breytenbach.
The CoE confirmed it was aware of the low water pressure at Olivewood.
“The city is investigating the cause with the aim of addressing the matter and find a permanent solution for the area,” said spokesperson Zweli Dlamini.
