Constant bursts and water outages frustrate residents in Robin Hills
Robin Hills residents have been without a reliable water supply for days as they experience recurring disruptions in the area.
Robin Hills has been facing on going challenge of water outages, as numerous bursts have left the community without water for days.
The latest burst, on Pieter Road, follows a series of pipe failures that previously left the community without water for more than seven days. The repeated outages have severely affected residents’ daily lives, flooding some properties. The leak on Pieter Road affected residents as far as Rooibok Road.
Read more: Pretoria Avenue burst worsens
Ward councillor Hendrik Bodenstein said the ongoing problem is linked to excessive water pressure in the system. “All these bursts in this little area happened in a space of a day and a half, and the one on Pieter Road happened on May 5. Johannesburg Water says bursts are caused by old infrastructure.
For how long will that be an excuse? If there are old pipes, replace them. If they can see there’s this number of bursts in a single area, they need to prioritise it, otherwise, they’ll be here every second week.”
He added that the way the system is running is that the bursts also affect residents in other suburbs. “Because the Linden 1 and 2 reservoirs are connected, if water flows out of a burst from here, people on the side of Darrenwood might lose water.
Also read: Unfinished pipe burst repairs continue to leak
It’s a bigger problem than just this area, with the Linden water tower being on bypass with the crack that it has, there’s no kind of safety net anymore, like we used to have a few years ago when it was still operating.”
Bodenstein is calling for urgent intervention and plans to prevent further disruptions. “The problem with the city at this moment is failure to plan. Because there are no contingency plans, if something breaks, it breaks. There’s no backup whatsoever, and that is a problem.”
He is questioning whether the suburb’s infrastructure is capable of handling the pressure demands, with calls growing for authorities to move beyond short-term fixes and invest in lasting upgrades to the water network.
Questions were sent to Johannesburg Water and they promised to provide a response within their standard turnaround time, depending on the complexity of the matter and input required from the relevant technical department.
However, they hadn’t replied by the time of print. Their response will be published once made available.
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