Caravan Park water leaked fixed

The gushing water pipe in Lorne Street was repaired without any businesses being affected by the shut off

May 14, 2019

Ronelle Mungaroo 2 minutes read

The leaking pipe in the toilet that was finally repaired last week.

Finally, the pipe gushing water at Caravan Park has been repaired. It’s close to six months since it was first reported to the local municipality.

READ INITIAL STORY: Millions of litres of water wasted at Estcourt’s Caravan Park

Municipal Manager Patrick Mkhize, in a response to questions from the Estcourt News, assured that the leak would be attended to.

“There was a problem with shutting off the main because the businesses around Lorne Street were going to be without water,” Mr Mkhize substantiated.

The Estcourt News spoke to four business owners and managers in Lorne Street and each one confirmed that they were never approached about a possible water disruption due to repairs and would wholeheartedly agree to a cut rather than the water wastage.

None of the business owners mentioned that the water flow was disrupted last week when the repair took place.

Malek’s Service Station’s Ahmed Malek said: “We would not have minded being cut off at all, how can we agree to see water being wasted? I think they could take into consideration doing the repair at night and inform us of the time limit.”

Usheel Bidesi from Hi-Auto agreed that the ‘water wastage was unacceptable.’

“It would not have hugely affected our business,” he added.

Dolly Dhewchand who owns Philadelphia Crèche said that she would have made alternative arrangements for the children.

“They should sort out the leaks. There are water leaks all over town, it’s really bad,” said Mrs Dhewchand.

Shepstone Place Home for the Aged Chairlady Sheryl Lane said that with the current water crisis in the country, it was imperative that water conservation is a priority.

“They’ve cut out water off before without notification and we had to rely on the church and its members for water, so what would be the problem now? If they told us upfront, we would have made alternate arrangements, we always do. The municipality must not make excuses, they just don’t know how to organise,” said Mrs Lane.

Uthukela District Municipality was contacted to provide comment on Inkosi Langalibalele Local Municipality’s delay in repairing the water pipe as well as the waste of clean water.

“Upon investigation, our Superintendent based in Estcourt, has established that indeed there was a leak in that area. What I want to make it clear here is that once there is any leakage, be it in business or residential premises that is beyond our meter, it then becomes the responsibility of the owner to fix it. In this case it is the responsibility of Inkosi Langalibalele Municipality to fix the leaks as the Caravan Park belongs to that municipality,” commented Mr Mkhonza.