Close the tap on water leaks

About 6000 million litres of clean water is going down the drain every month because of water leaks, burst pipes and other water-related problems.

The City of Cape Town’s acting Mayco member for water and sanitation, Siseko Mbandezi, confirmed the total following an enquiry about a water leak that had been unattended for weeks in Lotus River, according to residents.

Teal Road resident Janine Rodde Becker said she and other residents made complaints to the City about water running along the road.

“The water has been running for three or four weeks and numerous calls and complaints lodged with the council have had no effect. How long must fresh water still go to waste?” she asked.

“Besides that, the infrastructure of this road is not the best. The road has cracks already and has been patched in certain sections. Are they waiting on this road to become a sinkhole before they do anything and who is going to pay when people’s properties get damaged should this pipe decide to burst?”

Another resident Fadwa Abrahams said he had also registered a service request about a week ago because the leak worsened over time.

“It wasn’t as bad at first but more and more water started leaking and the whole street was full of water. That’s a lot of water to just go wasted like that when not too long ago we had a water crisis.”

She said the City needs to react more efficiently to save water.

“I don’t see the point of us being water wise and trying to save water when there’s literally water going to waste just running off into the streets.”

Ward councillor William Akim said he had only become aware of the underground water leak last week and went to investigate and a service request was created.

“There was lots of water running and going to waste and I emailed the water department to attend to the pipe leak and it was escalated to quickly fix it,” he said.

Mr Mbandezi confirmed that a water reticulation team had attended to and repaired the leak on Thursday March 2.

Responding to the claims that the affected road infrastructure might be affected, the City’s Mayco member for Urban Mobility Rob Quintas said there had not been any formal complaints to suggest that the road was damaged.

“The City’s road infrastructure management department is not aware of any complaints regarding the road surface. The team will conduct an assessment to determine whether remedial action is required,” he said.

Water leaks can be reported to the City’s 24-hour Customer Relations call centre through its WhatsApp channel at 060 018 1505, log a service request on their website or call 0860 103 089.