Johannesburg Water finally attends to leak in Robin Hill
After six weeks, Johannesburg Water has repaired the leak on Valley Street in Robin Hill, but residents aren't happy that all they did is fix the leak, not the damage caused.
Johannesburg Water (JW) has finally attended the neglected water leak that was gushing out thousands of litters of clean and fresh water on Valley Street in Robin Hill.
Read more: Nicolyn Avenue leak finally repaired, but excavation remains open
The leak, in the middle of a resident’s driveway, was pouring out water for six weeks, despite residents and the ward councillor escalating the matter daily. Resident Tony Klem explained that he reported the leak weeks ago, but nothing happened. The water destroyed the paving at his gate, which was not fixed by the entity after the repairs. “The paving sank from the mud. I just have space to enter my property. They just fixed the leak, but they didn’t fix the paving. But I know they do half a job. It will start leaking again in a couple of weeks. Maybe after they fix that, they can do the paving. I have been there before.”
The frustrated Ward 99 councillor, Hendrik Bodenstein, urged JW to take these kinds of leaks seriously, and to respond with urgency. “We have been told to use water sparingly, but the entity allows things like this. This is clean water that runs down into the storm water system, and we are left fitting the bill because all of us residents are paying for this water through rates and taxes.”
Also read: Water wastage as Helen Road water leak left unresolved for several months
Bodenstein added that, with the Eikenhof maintenance coming up, there will be no water for 21 days, and with leaks it will be difficult to fill the Linden 1 and 2 reservoirs. “This is not the only leak we have, there are plenty in our ward and in the city.” He confirmed that, luckily, the leak did not affect the resident’s meter or water bills.
The city is set to endure a challenging 21-day water outage beginning in June 30, as Rand Water launches a large-scale maintenance programme across the city’s critical water supply systems.
The planned maintenance, which will run until July 21, is aimed at improving long-term infrastructure efficiency, but it will come with significant short-term disruption for residents and businesses alike.
Questions were sent to JW, but they did not reply by the time of print.
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