What you can do when Joburg Water projects become a danger
After reporting a problem, it is equally important to follow up if service delivery is not provided.
In March on Long Road in Greymont, an elderly couple drove into a huge Joburg Water excavation hole, and recently in Victoria, a car drove into a similar open construction hole.
What can residents do when something like this happens to them?
Puleng Mopeli from Joburg Water explained, “Ageing infrastructure is a major challenge in the city and as a result, there are recurring bursts and blockages. Through capital project interventions, we are mandated to replace the identified problems [pipes and other infrastructure] to avoid water losses in the future. The pipe replacement intervention aims to aid the deterioration of the city’s infrastructure such as roads and avoiding customer inconvenience.”
Mopeli explained that ‘councillors can escalate to the respective depot managers and stakeholder relations in their region and make use of WhatsApp groups where our operations department is a part of and attend to escalations.”
Ward 88 ward councillor Nicolene Jonker said, “Joburg Water has a service level agreement with the city, as do other entities like Joburg Roads Agency. Generally, JW responds to calls timely, but interruptions and unexpected delays do happen.”
She encouraged residents to report problems or faults to JW as soon as possible. Thereafter they have 48 hours to attend to the problem. Should this period elapse, they can reach out to their councillors to ask for the matter to be escalated with the original reference number provided.
Puleng lastly noted that if there are damages to vehicles and property as a result of these infrastructure projects, residents can do the following: “Contact the customer care centre for their region who will assist with taking the claimant through the claims process and will ensure that an investigation is conducted, and claims processed timeously.”
Timeframes for reported problems relating to Joburg Water
- Water pipe bursts – 48 hours
- Fire hydrant repairs – 12 hours
- Replacement of a stolen water meter – 24 hours
- Repair of a defective water meter – 3 days
- Repair of leaking valves on the main line – 48 hours
- Clearing of blocked sewerage – 24 hours
- Replacement of missing manhole covers – 24 hours
- New water connections – 15 days
If you need to log a call with Joburg Water, please call 011 375 5555 or send an email to customerserviceemails@jwater.co.za
Tip-offs can be provided anonymously by calling 0800 00 25 87; via SMS to 32840 or by email on anticorruption@tip-offs.com
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