Residents in the Thistle Grove area are facing daily water shortages and are pointing fingers at Govan Mbeki Municipality.
They believe they are being throttled.
Many residents have voiced their anger over the continued lack of water supply on WhatsApp groups and other social media.
In a more recent post on the GMM’s Facebook page, a water leak was reported in Fisant Street.
Residents say the burst pipes are caused by GMM’s continuous shutting off the water supply.
“The pipes rupture as a result of water hammers. The integrity of the pipes is already compromised because of the lack of maintenance by the incompetent GMM,” said an angry resident.
Ward 17 DA Cllr Jaco Tesner said that water challenges in the Thistle Grove area have been ongoing since 2015.
“The municipality needs to sort this problem out,” said Tesner.
He said residents face daily water cuts from 08:00 in the morning till 18:00, and on weekends there is no water at all.
“It is as if someone cuts off the water and then opens it again. It is like water-shedding,” said Tesner.
He said there are months when the water supply is normal, but it is not long, then the water is throttled again and residents are without water for days.
Then, when there is water, the pressure is extremely low.
Tesner claims the residents still receive high water bills every month, even though the water consumption is much less due to no water.
“GMM does not do proper water readings every month. GMM thumb sucks the consumption of water,” said Tesner.
He said that according to GMM, the demand is high and that the water from the reservoirs does not flow fast enough for the demand.
“There are water towers in Thistle Grove, but only one is working,” said Tesner.
He said although water tankers do go out to the areas that have no water, it has happened where residents have chased them away because the residents say these trucks need to go from house to house for them to fill up their buckets.
After all, the buckets are too heavy to carry from collection points to the houses.
“Unfortunately, these trucks are at a specific collection point. They can’t go from house to house,” said Tesner.
Even though some homeowners have Jojo tanks, not everyone is in the position to purchase one, let alone buy bottles of water daily.
“Residents can’t flush their toilets, nor can they cook or bath because of no water,” said Tesner.
He said it is a daily struggle. Residents can’t go to work and learners can’t go to school because there is no water to bathe or flush toilets.
A concerned resident said that Jojo tanks or storage tanks were never an issue.
“This municipality and its corrupt officials are stealing the people’s money and not giving service delivery. They are deviating from the issue of service delivery,” said a resident.
“The demand is only too high because they are afraid to shut off Afghanistan informal settlement and other places because that’s from where their votes are coming.
“I am by no means saying that residents in those areas should be without water, just like Thistle Grove should not be without water.
“It is a basic human right and we need to take serious action now,” said an irritated resident.
Other residents who took to a local WhatsApp group said this is an urgent matter that needs immediate attention.
“When account comes, we immediately pay, which does not make sense because we are paying for water we never had.
“Not all of us can afford Jojo tanks. GMM needs to do something before everyone stops paying the accounts. Why is it only our reservoir that is empty?” said the resident.
The Ridge Times sent an email to GMM’s acting manager for communication, Donald Green, with questions on water throttling, why only one reservoir is working and what challenges GMM is facing regarding infrastructure and the sending out of water trucks.
Green said several waterpipe burst in Kinross in the past week.
“There was a burst pipe in Kinross on the main supply from Rand Water on March 1.
“Another pipe burst at Fisant Street in Thistle Grove on March 2,” said Green.
He said the water levels in Kinross reservoir are sometimes low and this affects some sections, including Thistle Grove and Ext 25.
“There is no fault on the system, the problem is due to the demand exceeding supply.
“The technical team is always monitoring the situation and assisting the areas,” concluded Green.
