Water meter woes for Glenwood resident

A GLENWOOD resident was completely floored when she returned home to no water last Wednesday evening.

Hayley Going only realised her water had been cut after she got home and went to put her washing on. “I immediately phoned my neighbours to check if they had water. When my neighbour confirmed she had water but informed me that people had been working near the front of my house earlier in the day.”

Going went to investigate and discovered that the pavement in front of her home had been dug up and the rubble shoved in the hole. “A new plastic box was there, completely skew and looking as though it was about to fall over. It was showing no signs of life! The pavement was covered in red sand, as was my wall, and there were bits of broken pipe all over, a black bag full of papers and discarded dirt was left on the pavement. There was also water bubbling out slowly next to the new, but dirty, white box,” said an irate Going who has gone to great pains to keep a neat and tidy verge since moving into her new home six months ago.

After calling the fault reporting line a number of times she realised that her initial report at 5.45pm had not been captured. “I was told that my complaint would immediately be taken to the supervisor, who would take it to the control room and escalate my problem. At 7.30pm I phoned back, told the guy that I was beyond desperate, I have a child, I have pets, I had no warning that this was going to happen and he assured me that the plumber was on a site, and I was his next job.”

At 9.27pm, a desperate Going called back but was told that she needed to wait for the next plumber, who came on shift at 10pm and that she would be his first stop. “When the plumber did not arrive at 10pm I called back and asked who would be responsible for paying for all the water which was now running down the road. I was told to keep my reference number and when my bill was high this month then I could contest it!” she said.

After giving up on any plumber assisting them reconnect the water, Going went to bed. “I woke up at 3:30am to find that there was still no water. I called the call centre back and was told that the plumber had been to my house and that the problem had been resolved. I explained that the problem had definitely not be resolved and that I still had no water.”

At 5.30am on Thursday morning, the plumber arrived and insisted that he had fixed the leak at 10pm the previous night. Going said she explained the problem to the plumber and pointed to the water bubbling out of the side of the meter. “I asked him how he had fixed it.”

“They proceeded to dig up the pavement again and after turning the water on could immediately see the water streaming out of the conduit pipe that ran into the wall. He then proceeded to tell me that the fault was inside our property,” she said.

“They came into my property and dug up my concrete walkway to access the pipe from the inside my property. The pipe was fixed three hours later,” she said.

Going said the contractors who moved her water meter had cut the mains pipe during the installation and shoved it into the conduit pipe and left the water switched off and had then driven off. “They clearly did not know what they were doing and didn't bother to try and connect it. The pavement outside my house and concrete walkway inside my property look terrible. Clearly the sub-contractors who were hired to do this job originally had no clue what they were doing when they installed the new water meter. When was I going to be informed about this new water meter? Surely some sort of pre-warning is warranted? I cannot comprehend why my house and a block of flats further down the road were singled out for a new water meter! The stopcock is now situated outside my property, in an unlocked plastic white box. Anyone could turn my water off at will!”

The eThekwini Water Department was unable to comment by the time of going to press.