The Advertiser was made aware of two water leaks that appear to have both been caused by burst pipes in Sunward Park, corner Rooibekkie and Aquarius streets, and at a residential area in Witfield, Nirvana Street.
A Sunward Park resident, who wishes to stay anonymous, says she noticed the leak as early as May 15 and reported to the metro soon after.
“After reporting the leak, I saw some workers from the metro attending to the problem, but the water started leaking soon after it was said to be fixed.
“When they came back to fix it again, they left with the water still leaking, and they also did not close up the hole that was left from the first attempt to fix the pipe,” says the resident.
Witfield resident and property owner, Abrie Viljoen, alerted the Advertiser to a bad water leak outside his property after a pipe burst, resulting in water gushing down the street.
He said that the he noticed the leak already in October 2012.
After reporting the leak on many occasions, the water leak has remained a problem to current date.
Viljoen says that because the pipe is outside his yard, he has continuously written to the municipality and called many times to have the leak fixed.
“In the past months, the leak has caused the streets to wear out and has also caused potholes on the street,” says Viljoen.
Another disgruntled Cinderella resident expressed his frustration about a water pipe that had burst outside his premises.
He says that he reported the incident at 1pm on Friday, June 12, and later that day the problem had not been attended to.
“Two years ago pipes, which had survived more than 50 years, in Cinderella were replaced.
“To date there have been several incidents of newly-replaced pipes leaking periodically,” says a disgruntled resident who would like to remain anonymous.
All these complaints come just months after Moses Makwakwa, member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Finance, has announced during the Ekurhuleni’s Budget Speech that Ekurhuleni writes off almost R485-m in water usage and losses every year.
At the time of going to print, there was no comment received from the metro.
