Ferndale Valley Arboretum water leak raising concern since January 2023
Emi Koekemoer, Ward 104 councillor, hopes Johannesburg Water can attend to the leak as a matter of urgency.
Thousands and thousands of litres of freshwater goes to waste as water continues to gush out of a pipe burst at the Ferndale Valley Arboretum.
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The pipe burst is next to the fence inside the arboretum, and the water is pouring down to the river. The leak goes all the way back to the beginning of January 2023 when it was first reported.
Bronweyn Craig, member of the Bryanfern Residents Association, who cleans the green belt, explained that the leak was first reported and escalated in 2023, and during a community walk it was found to still be running on September 3 of this year, and reported again.
“Reference numbers were sent on all occasions. When Emi Koekemoer escalated to Nico Singh, from Joburg Water, he acknowledged the issue. We checked the leak again, on September 30, and still no sign of the entity on site. It has been more than a month since we last reported.”
She explained that her biggest concerns are the hundreds of thousands of litres of wasted fresh water and the millions of rands of wasted revenue for the city.
“Joburg water just does not care. It’s an absolute disgrace that residents are been told to cut back on water usage and they leave such a massive leak, that has probably never even been investigated, to continue running for over 20 months. Our area has experienced low water pressure for months and this is possibly the reason.
“The constant poor management of our precious resources is unacceptable. They need to do the job they are mandated to do as per their own policy documents, and Service Level Agreement (SLA).”
Koekemoer, the ward 104 councillor, confirmed that the leak was initially brought to her attention in January of 2023, and again in September of 2024.
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However, it is unclear if the repairs were done by the entity prior to the recent leak in September.
Johannesburg Water was sent questions about the issue, but they hadn’t replied by the time of print. Their response will be published once made available.
Koekemoer explained, in a recent water imbizo held in September by the Gauteng Provincial Government, Rand Water painted an alarming picture of City of Johannesburg’s water use, in comparison to that of the rest of Gauteng. A contributing factor to the high water use is non-revenue losses, such as illegal water connections as well as leaks and bursts being left unattended.
She added that this contributes to a plethora of other issues like water eroding our road surfaces and thousands of excavations decorating the sidewalks.
“They mentioned that there is a percentage of water stored for municipalities for summer months, due to seasonal higher water usage, of which COJ has already depleted 20%. This outlines the concerning reality that residents face on a daily basis which is a lack of urgent decisive action by the current administration to deal with Joburg Water’s infrastructure crisis.
“It is truly a concerning state of affairs. Since I escalated there has been pretty much no response, aside from that the matter will be escalated further, from the entity. Joburg Water attends to issues in ward 104 alarmingly slowly, with sewage issues taking on average two weeks and leaks up to a month.”
Koekemoer said she hoped that the entity can attend to the leak as a matter of urgency, as well as assess water and sewerage infrastructure along their green spaces.
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