A drought gripped the suburb of Elardus Park last week, holding residents and businesses at ransom, as taps remained dry for three days. The cause of the water disruption was allegedly due to a burst pipe, which was left to flow for three days despite residents’ calls for help to the Tshwane metro.
Gerhard Lampbercht alerted Rekord to the situation, saying that he was fed up with the metro’s call centre. “I reported the shortage on Monday evening. I was driving home from work when I noticed the burst pipe in De Villa Bois Road. I did not expect the pipe to be fixed immediately. However, when I saw that the pipe was still leaking on Tuesday evening and that there was still no water in our taps, I got upset. This meant that hundreds of residents were without water for more than three days. My calls to the metro did nothing to solve the situation, as I am sure was the case with other residents’ calls.”
Fellow resident, Martie Stydom, told Rekord that she too had reported the water shortage to the metro and was lucky to be able to afford bottled water. “My calls were answered on Tuesday and I was told that a plumbing team would be sent out, however, nothing happened. My reference number meant nothing, as follow-up calls proved fruitless.”
The metro responded to Rekord’s enquiries on why it took three days for the burst pipe to be fixed, saying that there was currently a temporary shortage of plumbing teams.
Ward Councillor Rita Aucamp confirmed that the metro only had one plumber on its service providers list for the eastern suburbs of Pretoria. “In my opinion, it is simply unacceptable that the metro only has one service provider for a critical service such as water. One man and his team simply cannot get to all the emergencies. I urge the metro to appoint more service providers to provide assistance when essential services fail.”
