Resident cuts her fence as pipe bursts in driveway
What started off as a small leak causing a pothole turned out to be a resident's nightmare as her driveway was affected.
A Norkem Park resident had to break her palisade fence to gain access to her house due to a burst pipe in her driveway on Harry van Wyk Avenue.Janja Wills says the burst pipe started off as a small leak and when she called the metro they did not respond. Two months later the leak turned into a nightmare for residents in that street due to the water outages that would happen for days.
“I would call the metro about five times a day and when I expressed my frustrations because I did not have access to my house, they told me ‘fix the hole yourself’,” said Wills.
“All they have been doing is giving me reference numbers since January. This mess could have been avoided.”
When the metro did eventually respond, they simply dug a hole and residents of that street were without water for about two to three days.
Clr Desmond Mckenzie assisted the residents by contacting the metro. According to the contractors that were on site, the hole was about 1.5m deep when they arrived to fix it.
“The hole was so deep, I didn’t have access to my own yard through my gate. I had to break my palisade fence on the side to have access. When the metro came they just drained the hole, patched the pipe and left,” said Wills.
“My garden and yard is filled with mud because of this leak. Even my neighbours started complaining about the water coming from my yard into theirs because of the leak.”
The fixing of the burst pipe was underway on November 9.
“I am here with Lucazi Civil Contractors, which is a private contractor company appointed by the metro. I have told them they have to fix this leak today because it is a big problem,” said Mckenzie.
Noel Dzhivhuho from Lucazi Civil Contractors said they first had to ensure there was no leak before they could close the hole.
“When we see it remains dry, we will close the hole, cut the road properly and tar it. In the meantime we will make sure cars will be able to pass on the other side of the road,” said Dzhivhuho.
