Workers slow to stop water leak on Friday afternoon

At about 2.30pm on Friday January 8 we became aware of the sound of running water, and went to the fence of Settlers Park onto Moody Ave, where we saw that again the fire hydrant was pouring water down the road.

We immediately phoned the fire department and the lady thanked me and said that they would attend to it straight away. We were busy with other things, but when we went outside we discovered that now, two hours later, the water was still running. This time a lady called Timbavua (?) said she would log it straight away.

After fifteen minutes I phoned again and got through to a man who was on stand-by, who said they had notified the water department twice, who said they were on their way.

I told him Talk of the Town had been out to take photographs, and he said he would notify the water department again.

Ten minutes later a fire truck arrived and the man who I had spoken to, using a wheel spanner, stopped the water flow. He explained that in order to take stock of water, all hydrants had to be closed. Then, before they can be used again, they have to bleed air out of the system. So they open them, but in this case it was Friday so they decided to “chayila” instead.

This is the third time we have had to report incidents like this, and now, when we are having to use our precious rain water, as we only get municipal water every second day, it is heart-breaking to see such waste of water. They should fire these people and hire people who actually want to work!