SECUNDA – Clear, drinking water spills in kilolitres down a drain in the Secunda CBD – a water waste that is unaccounted for when it comes to the Govan Mbeki Municipality paying its bill to Rand Water.
The council is trying every which way to get residents to pay their accounts for water and electricity consumption, yet there is a massive water waste for which the municipality will have to cough up come pay day.
A water pipe at the back entrance to Shoprite in the CBD (just across the parking area from the municipality) has been leaking for months.
Ms Ena van Rooyen from the DA who is the ward councillor for the CBD, came to the GMM’s work team’s defence, claiming that they have previously repaired this pipe several times.
She blames the informal car washers in the parking areas around the CBD for the water spill.
“The team repairs the problem only to find two days later that vandals broke it open again.
“This has been going on for months.”
Ms Van Rooyen said the car washers scoop out water from the broken pipe to wash cars, but no-one is paying for the water consumption.
A large hard piece of plastic was found wedged into the broken concrete lid to prevent the water from spewing out. This makeshift cover rather channels the water to a point where it can easily be scooped up into buckets.
The water that is not collected, spills non-stop over onto a walkway and streams into a sewer.
Ms Van Rooyen removed the plastic sheet in the first week of July, yet on Thursday, 11 July, it was placed back.
Informal car washers told the municipality’s law enforcers they get water all over with which they wash the cars in the parking lot.
They also pointed to a leak on a roof of a privately owned building near the Secunda Post Office.
The municipality’s communication department was asked for comment, but no response was received at time of going to press.
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