A BURST pipe in Davallen Avenue in La Lucia is contributing in a major way to the city’s escalating water loss problem. The auditor general’s report released in January, showed that the municipality’s water loss stood at R513m. The city’s water is bought from Umgeni Water and 40 per cent of that water is being wasted.
Water gushes from the water pipe in Davallen Avenue and according to residents it burst five times in the last four weeks. “We have had numerous bursts before that. I spoke to one of the men repairing the pipes and asked if they could replace the pipes along the road as it keeps bursting. He said no, they would only fix the pipe when it breaks,” said resident, Penny Frost.
Now, the residents say they have had enough. “The grass on my neighbour’s verge has been dug out, broken pipes have been left behind and in my opinion it’s a shoddy job. Wilden Place is experiencing the same issues as we are,” Frost added.
The reasons for the water loss, according to ward councillor for the area Heinz de Boer, were varied and one of the biggest problems was burst water pipes. But the city also has to deal with water thieves he said. “There are literally hundreds and thousands of people who have connected onto the main water reticulation system. They either bypass the meter, or in some areas were never provided with a meter and have just run a pipe onto the main lines.”
Speaking at the human settlements and infrastructure meeting of the council this week, De Boer urged the city to look at employing more plumbers to speedily respond to leaks.
“If we spend an additional R50-million, for example, on employing more plumbers, we would still save up to R200-million in lost water by simply responding to leaks and bursts quicker.
“Now Davallen and some roads in La Lucia are a symptom of the lack of money the city has to address the replacement of old asbestos cement water main pipes. Laid up to 30 years ago, these pipes are deteriorating rapidly and frequently burst. The city spent more than R1-billion on replacing the pipes in a city wide project some six years ago, at least another billion is needed to finish the job.
“The problem in roads like Rinaldo, Davallen and Armstrong is that when pipes burst, repair crews cut out the offending section and replace it with the new plastic piping. The problem is that the seals and joints between the old asbestos cement pipe and new plastic pipe are always vulnerable, and it’s these joints that give way, leading to frequent bursts in the area,” De Boer said.
De Boer said he has asked Metro Water to investigate the replacement of pipes in all those specific roads and said he’s awaiting a decision from the city engineers.
