City does nothing about huge leak
I AM a self-styled Water Warrior in Claremont and have detected a steady leak fed by a domestic meter.
On March 27, I called the 0860 CCT reporting line and was advised to e-mail: Official_1 at water@capetown. org.za. I did this, with the full details.
I followed up later with another e-mail on April 7, then walked into “Water and Sanitation” in Pinelands to report the leak, but I was told that it was only the sanitation department and was advised to SMS the details to their SMS number “for the swiftest action”. This I did.
On April 30, I walked into the CCT HQ (Foreshore) and reported the matter to the enquiries desk, but could not be given a reference number, as “this was an old account”. Five-hundred metres from the centre, I was called by Official 2, who began saying that nothing could be done, but then agreed that no resident of Cape Town could afford an R8 000 a day water bill.
He ended up telling me that the city needed more people like me around and that he would visit the site that day. He never called me back, so I don’t know what he did. However, the leak continued unabated. I also e-mailed my local councillor, who replied that she had logged the leak.
I have dropped several notes into the letterboxes in the complex, one of which must be connected to this meter, in an attempt to alert the tenant(s)/ owners/landlord(s) about this problem, but all to no avail.
The CCT mantra is “every drop counts”, but apparently a swimming pool a week for eight weeks or more counts for nothing. Is this not a case of straining the gnat and swallowing the camel? The CCT has not furnished one reference number. It boasts that “This City works for You”. It seems that the lie is hidden in the headline.