THE metro’s current initiative to mark all fire hydrants turned sour for a Van Riebeeck Park resident when his pavement was dug up in search of a non-existing hydrant.
“This whole incident is a very poor reflection on our water department and city management and just another sad example of why so many people have such little respect for municipal government, Bert Watson said.
He said a municipal crew came to his property on Friday, October 10 looking for a fire hydrant. “My wife and I were away at the time but my daughter and domestic worker were home.
“While I applaud the municipality’s desire to locate and upgrade hydrants, what happened at our house is nothing but shameful. When crew members arrived, they asked both my daughter and our neighbour where the hydrant was.
“However, there is no hydrant. Two municipal workers removed it several years ago, perhaps because it was in the middle of the neighbour’s driveway.
“Unable to read their diagram, the crew started digging in the landscaped portion of my front garden, making no effort to save the four mature bushes they uprooted. To make matters worse, they were digging with a pick right next to our water meter and pipe. Of course, they never found the hydrant,” Watson said.
“However, in an act of rather unbelievable incompetence, they did manage to pierce the water pipe on my side of the meter and a large amount of water poured down the neighbour’s driveway. As our neighbour testified, after a bit of panic, they finally managed to locate the valve and closed off our water supply.
“Then, without informing my daughter, without apologising, without leaving a note of explanation, without making any effort to see to the replacement of the pipe they damaged and without cleaning up their mess, this team simply packed up and left, explaining to our neighbour’s employee that they did not fix pipes, they only looked for hydrants.
“My wife and I arrived that night to discover we had no water and assumed the municipality was working on the pipes somewhere. Early the next morning, I went outside and saw the mess in front of our property – four uprooted bushes carelessly tossed aside, soil piled up on our paving stones, a sizable hole in the ground, the covering of our water meter open and a hole in our water pipe. As I was taking photos, our neighbour came out and described what had happened. His employee spoke to me later in the week. Both had witnessed the entire incident.
“I immediately contacted the call centre to report the incident and asked for a repair team to replace the section of pipe the workers had damaged. They promised a team would come in 4-24 hours. Even though we were ‘fourth on the list’, they never came.
“I called again and was told the team would call and let me know when they were coming. They never called. In spite of several conversations with the call centre, a lot of promises and even intervention by our ward councillor, the repair team never came. When I pressed the call centre for the water department number, they would not give it to me.
“Finally, late on Sunday afternoon, our third day without water, I sought assistance from a young man at our church who owns a plumbing company and he came immediately, replaced the pipe, checked all the connections and restored our water supply.
“On Monday we cleaned up the destroyed bushes and after a week with no word from the municipality, finally removed the pile of soil on our paving stones and filled the hole.
“As is sometimes the case, we also had secondary plumbing damage with one of our geyser valves failing, most likely because dirt got into the system. We were up to about 1am soaking up water in the attic and my son’s room.
“Even after filing a written complaint about this incident online and sending an email to the head of the Kempton water department, we have received no response, no apology and no explanation. I tried calling the listed number for the water department but either the number does not work or no one answers.
“I believe the municipality owes me an apology for damaging the pipe and not replacing it in a timely manner, reimbursement for the plumbing costs and a refund for the water lost. I later received a phone call from Mr Thokozani Maseko, Ekurhuleni’s divisional director of water and sanitation. He apologised for the poor service and stated I would receive an email apology later that day. I asked him about reimbursement for the expenses we incurred repairing damage to our pipes.
“He said I would have to file a claim against the municipality. He also said an investigation would be launched. While I appreciated his call, the email of apology never arrived, nor did the promised instructions on how to file a claim to recover the costs.
“What upset us the most was the municipality’s failure to address the damage they caused to our water pipe.”
Kempton Express referred this article to the metro over a month ago but still has not received a reply.
