When a Vorna Valley resident and co-founder of Little Friends Nursery School Wynand Botha reported water leaks to Joburg Water, he was happy to get a response on the same day, at first.
This is where the story begins. Botha said he reported the matter on March 4 through an email and received a reply on the same day with a reference number – which gave him high hopes of the matter being resolved soonest.
The leak is close to the nursery school at 13 Gustav Preller and Langenhoven streets in Vorna Valley.
The issue took longer than he expected to be resolved and eventually Botha followed up with the entity on March 18 – and they promised to escalate the matter to the Midrand Depot.
“I am getting impatient and frustrated with the water leaks because they are next to our nursery school and they are damaging the road. Soon the road will have potholes – which technically would have been caused by the City’s failure to attend to the water leaks urgently. I then made a second follow up with them [Joburg Water] on April 11 and gave them the reference number they gave me, but still did nothing,” said Botha.
In an email between Botha and Joburg Water, which was seen by the Midrand Reporter on May 6, the complainant has waited for about three months of no action.
In their response to the Midrand Reporter’s query on May 17, Joburg Water’s Midrand Depot manager Akani Shibambu said, “We realised upon looking into the matter when the same reference was followed up that there was a system error and the team went to number 5 Gustav Preller, instead of number 13 Gustav Preller. This was caused by a systematic error, which resulted in a misallocation of a functional location”.
He said due the misallocation above, the call was closed as the visited address had no leak.
When asked when the problem likely be solved, “We have re-opened the job card, and the problem will be resolved by May 17 end of business”.
Shibambu concluded that they have a continuous pressure management programme aimed at minimising the number of leaks in the area.
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Joburg Water announces water challenges affecting Sandton, Midrand and surrounds
