Water pipe leak at Kya Sand Business Park reaches a two-year milestone
Devon Steenkamp urges Johannesburg Water to take up and prioritize pressing concerns, which are a clear indicator of their failure to handle fundamental services.
Kya Sand Business Park recently marked the second anniversary of a water leak at its entrance pedestrian walkway.
A banner, with writing saying: ‘Happy 2nd anniversary. This leak has now been running for 24 months courtesy of Johannesburg Water’, was installed on site. They included all the 15 reference numbers they received over the years.
The entrance on Granite Drive has a main line water supply pipe running into the business park on the left-hand side of the road verge. It runs underneath the pedestrian access walkway and pedestrian turnstile. The pipe has had multiple leaks and has been patched up by Johannesburg Water (JW) in the past. However, they have been ignoring the current leak for 24 months.
Karsten Wodrich, of Techmatic Holdings, at the business park, explained that the leak was first logged in October 2022, with no reference number received. It was logged again in November, and again in December. It was then escalated by Ward 134 councillor Devon Steenkamp in May last year, but still no action was taken by the entity.
“We received a request to remove the turnstile, pavement, and trees in the leak area in June 2023, which was subsequently done, but there was still no action. An attempt was made to contact the MMC for Infrastructure, Jack Sekwaila, but nothing happened thereafter.”
In December last year, Steenkamp and Nicole van Dyk met on site to discuss the issue. They escalated it again with JW, but with no luck.
In frustration, and without any action, and the leaks becoming more severe and affecting the water pressure in the business park, they deployed their plumbing team. They excavated the leak areas and sleeved the pipes to ensure that tenants had sufficient water pressure to keep the businesses within the park operating.
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“Water would still need to be shut down at the reservoir by JW for permanent fixes to be done to the piping as the piping is still leaking. The excavations were left open to assist JW to do a permanent repair to the pipes.”
Despite all reports and attempts to meet the entity halfway, the leak remains unattended 24 months later.
Steenkamp recently visited the site again. He explained that the inefficiency at JW is unacceptable after two years of battling to get a persistent leak resolved.
“Numerous references have been logged, escalations to senior management have been made, and yet, despite a range of excuses, ranging from the need for planned maintenance outage to supposed obstructions in the way, the issue remains unresolved.”
He added that the property owner complied and moved the obstructions, but JW then claimed they would only attend to it at night. Unfortunately, many nights have passed, and no action has been taken, with his further escalations now being ignored.
“This two-year anniversary highlights the sheer frustration felt by residents when dealing with basic service delivery failures. They need to step up and prioritise urgent matters like these, which are a clear sign of their failure to manage basic services.”
JW was sent questions about this issue, but had not replied by the time of print.
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