Burst pipe causes dirty situation

A BURST water pipe has caused endless problems for La Lucia resident, Reka Singh.

On Saturday 10 August, the burst pipe caused massive flooding outside Singh’s Addison Drive home, including her pool.

“I had no power for most of the days after the pipe burst,” Singh said.

To add insult to injury, Singh said her drainpipe in her property then got blocked from the excessive mud that was caused by the gushing pipe.

“The municipality refuses to take responsibility for unblocking my drain. These pipes are 10 years old and instead of replacing them, the municipality keeps patching them up, causing a few pipes to burst in our road,” she said.

“This has caused major damage to a number of homes in our road.”

For Singh it’s been really annoying and frustrating: “To add to the drama, the municipality’s water department couldn’t locate the mains until a passer-by told them where it was.”

According to Singh, it was a traumatic experience, adding it was an absolute inconvenience and unnecessary expense.

“The issue of Addison Drive has been raised by myself and residents as a problem about a few weeks ago,” said ward councillor, Heinz de Boer.

De Boer said it would seem there is a project in place to replace a substantial part of this water piping network in the near future.

“It is a little disappointing that it has taken about two years to get this project off the ground, particularly in light of the fact that the water department did not spend its entire budget in the last financial year,” De Boer said.

“I share the frustration of residents, particularly those who had their homes flooded. These incidents can be devastating to home owners.

“The procedure is usually that the home owner needs to claim from their household insurance to have damages repaired and sand and debris removed.

“But there have been cases where a home owner did not have insurance. It can financially cripple a person,” he added.

De Boer said there are several other roads he hopes will have new pipes installed in, including Rinaldo Road and other roads in Glenhills that have been hard hit by bursts.

“Part of the water saving scheme proposed by head of water, Neil Macleod, is the re-introduction of the asbestos cement pipe replacement project.

“It’s these old AC pipes that are the main culprits in the bursts. And often, where there is a joint between old AC and new plastic, bursts are very frequent.

“The cost of this project would be at least R1-billion and the council is still looking at the funding and implementation of this project,” De Boer said.