A GLENASHLEY homeowner is infuriated after the water meter, at her property, burst and she was forced to bear the cost of the clean-up.

Joan McCauley said the incident happened on January 13, after she noticed the water pressure at her home began to decrease.

“At first, I didn’t think anything of it, but a neighbour jogging by, at about 18:30, noticed the leaking meter and informed me,” said McCauley.

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She contacted the eThekwini Municipality immediately to report the fault, and asked for a plumber to be sent out.
Hours passed and nobody arrived.

“I called repeatedly for hours on end, but to no avail,” she said.

McCauley said what she was dreading then happened – the water meter burst at about 21:00, and water gushed out onto her driveway.

“It looked like a fire hydrant and there was water everywhere. The water created a pool, which was about a metre deep,” she said.

McCauley contacted the call centre up until about 01:00. A plumber finally arrived and turned off the meter.

“A huge portion of my verge washed away and, when City staff returned the next day to clean up the driveway and install a new meter,

I noticed they were covering the newly installed meter with sand. I asked them to stop,” she said.

McCauley added that she knew the meter had to be left exposed, so she contacted her insurance company and asked them to complete the job.

“As a result, I had to pay an excess of R1 250 and I lost my no-claim bonus. Had the municipality arrived before the meter bust, all of the cost and inconvenience could have been avoided,” she said.

The City was not available to comment by the time of going to print.

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