Dozens of leaks left unattended in Despatch
A leak located a mere 50m from the Nelson Mandela Bay plumbers’ depot in Despatch has been spewing out water for more than three months.
And resident Theodorus Senekal has been left fuming as this is just one of 13 leaks he has reported to the municipality.
The oldest leak has seen water streaming out since November last year.
“The leak on Petunia Street [close to the municipal depot] was reported to the municipality on March 3 but it is yet to be fixed.
“What bothers me most about this leak is that the water running down this driveway is visible to the people next door [to the depot] but they just won’t fix it,” Senekal said.
When The Herald visited the street, a private plumber was trying to fix it.
Senekal, meanwhile, said a leak on a piece of vacant land on Piet Joubert Street had been reported last month but had since formed a small dam.
Andre Greyling, who lives in the area, said he had reported the leak to the municipality three months ago.
“The municipality has kept coming out on weekends for the past three months but the leak is never fixed.”
“Different guys would come but still they would not repair it ... one weekend a team came and pumped the water out of the dam for the entire day but
they still did not fix the leak,” Greyling said.
He said workers claimed to have fixed the leak last week, but water was still seen pooling in the field.
A leak near Frans Conradie Primary School has started to create a puddle which is damaging the school’s field nearby.
Senekal said he had reported the matter to the municipality early this month.
Another leak in Van der Linde Street had damaged the driveway of a house as water was seeping underneath, while another channel of water was flowing down the opposite side.
“I had recently reported this leak but the owner of this house had told me that he had reported it for months on end,” he said.
Meanwhile, the municipality fixed a leak on Paul Kruger Street three weeks ago but never returned to repair the driveway they had dug up leading up to the garage of a house.
According to Senekal, the owner of the house has had to leave his car parked on the street.
Municipal spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki said the metro was faced with a water leaks backlog.
As of June 15, the backlog stood at 14,394 leaks, which was down dramatically after the appointment of seven contractors to deal with leaks.
He said the municipality prioritised leaks from pipe bursts that cause water outages for many residents, to meter leaks which took a lower priority.