Five-month water leak causes frustration
Johannesburg Water still needs to determine what is causing the water leak on Surrey Avenue even five months after it was first reported.
The water bill of Vertical Spaces, a building located on Surrey Avenue in Ferndale, has skyrocketed after a five-month leak outside the property.
Chantal Rajagopaul senior manager explained that their bill has escalated over the last few months, and they cannot recover this from tenants, so they are running at a loss.
“There is so much water being wasted. Joburg Water has given us the runaround. We have been at their offices several times, and nothing has been done. The bill is now in the region of R 50 000 to R 54 916 (October), we used to pay R10,000,00 in July, then from August the bill escalated.”
She added that the entity needs to credit them as the leak is not their fault and they need to resolve it urgently.
Johannesburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Lushaba confirmed that if the leak is on their side and the entity is responsible, the customer is able to approach the billing department for recourse.
“We need to first determine where the leak is coming from. The technical team needs to check if the leak is situated on the side of the property that Johannesburg Water is liable for, or if it is situated on the side of the property that the customer is liable for.”
The leak seems to be coming from between the two valves and the meter.
Lushaba explained that their team has to fix the situation they first expose the water pipeline to be able to detect exactly where the leak originates from.
“Only then will the team be able to get the full report on the kind of work that needs to be done, as well as the kind of materials that need to be sourced to complete the job. This kind of work can take up to seven days. If there are unforeseen circumstances that leads to delays in repairs, we will communicate with the customer.”
Asked why it took this long to attend to and fix the leak; Lushaba explained that JW has a huge backlog of water pipe bursts and leaks due to ageing infrastructure.
“Ageing infrastructure plays a role in this backlog in that as the number of bursts increases, the number of excavations also increases. Resource availability, which is both financial and human, then becomes a challenge.”
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