UMHLANGA residents have voiced their frustration and anger over a water pipe that has been constantly springing leaks over the last few months. According to two residents, Hylton Johnstone and his daughter, Toni Smith, the pipe, situated on Campbell Drive, has burst 10 times in the past 18 months, but the issue has been a longstanding one.

“Each leak has been different, but what is constant is the wastage of water. Often the Municipality take days to reply, which leads to more water being wasted. We feel the contractors are deliberately creating work by not repairing the pipe properly. With the water shortage facing the northern parts of KwaZulu-Natal, this is just shocking,” Johnstone said.

When Northglen News arrived last week, eThekwini Municipality employees were in the process of fixing the pipe. They had dug up a section of the road and reduced the two-way street to just one lane. However, Johnstone believes despite the repairs, the pipe will leak again. There have been times when the water just gushes out.

“I’m not confident that this problem will be fixed this time. I’m sure the Municipality will be back in about two months’ time. This is a waste of ratepayers’ money,” he said.

His daughter, Toni, said the contractors had in the past arrived as early as 3am to begin work.

“The noise from the construction work is ridiculous. What I feel is cause for concern though is the level of expertise being used every time the pipe begins to leak. The constant leaks damage the surface of the road,” Toni said.

According to uMhlanga ward councillor, Heinz de Boer, there are several weak spots in several pipes, mostly in residential areas around Durban North and uMhlanga, where there are constant faults.

“This section on Campbell Drive often leaks, which is problematic. Unfortunately, the water department hasn’t budgeted enough to spend on replacing problematic pipes in the area. The city, which has a bigger role to play in the water shortage crisis, is simply not coming to the party.

“You cannot encourage residents to conserve water and not attend to issues like this. I will keep pestering the Municipality to look at this stretch of road in order to find a solution,” he said.

Earlier this year, De Boer slammed the municipality’s proposal of a 6.8 per cent increase in water tariffs.

“Had the city been serious about water loss we would not have to increase tariffs and further burden eThekwini residents. We can no longer abide contractors who do a bad job on repairing pipes.

“Our budget cannot tolerate long waiting periods for plumbers to respond to bursts. We cannot continue to have hundreds of residents tapping into our water network illegally,” he said.