The sight that greeted residents of Indus and Jenkyn streets in Paradise on Sunday morning can only be described as a crevasse.
Responding to reports of an alleged burst pipe on Saturday night, municipality water services maintenance team arrived at 11pm to repair the pipe.
Upon awakening on Sunday morning, residents’ gratitude of having the burst pipe repaired was short lived, as a gaping hole about 4 metres long and 1.5 metres deep, made them choke on their morning cuppa. One lane on Jenkyn Street was impassable and danger tape demarcated the abyss.
On Monday, January 11, the hole was brimming with water gushing from the newly repaired pipe. Neighbourhood Watch for Paradise attempted to contact the municipality to report the leak once again, but to no avail. Dr Dumisani Thabethe, Water Services Customer Relations Manager, said the emergency number to report water leaks was inoperative at that time. “I will dispatch a team to attend to the pipe as soon as possible,” he undertook.
While waiting for the maintenance team to attend to the burst pipe, masses of potable water streamed from the pipe into the nearby stormwater drains.
By late Monday afternoon, municipal maintenance workers had repaired the leak.
