After months of water problems in the east of Pretoria, residents of Elardus Park, together with the Democratic Alliance (DA) ward councillor of the area, Rita Aucamp are fed up with the infrastructure problems they have to deal with.
According to a resident in the area, Rina Nortjé, Elardus Park itself is unrecognisable due to the water and repair damage left in the streets.
In the latest water problem to hit the east, a shocked resident from Menlo Park had to cut short his holiday when he found out all his property’s water has been streaming down the street since Tuesday.
Fanie Vermaak, who was on holiday in KwaZulu-Natal this week, rushed home on Friday morning after Tshwane metro failed to repair a burst pipe near his home.
According to Vermaak, though his property has been without any running water since Tuesday, his water meter is registering 110 kilolitres of water pumped into the street every day.
“The meter is still running, even though we have no water in the house,” a frustrated Vermaak said on Friday.
“Besides the water problem and metro’s poor service delivery to repair the damage, I have to worry about my water bill this month as well.”
Vermaak is thankful for his neighbour who alerted him of the problem and sent the original enquiry to the metro, but the metro is yet to assess the problem.
In a recent media statement by DA councillor Bruce Lee, he highlights the metro’s lack of adequate resources.
“The water infrastructure maintenance store in region 2 is run by a single woman with no computer equipment or network access. Everything is recorded by hand and if a job requires spare parts, she has to physically hold them in her hand to reserve them,” Lee writes.
“The department of water has been pleading with the metro’s IT department to install computer equipment and provide network access for the past two years but is met with silly responses like there are currently no IT tenders issued. This is the reason why a burst water pipe can sometimes take days before it is repaired.”
Last Wednesday evening during a ward meeting in Waterkloof, DA councillor Bronwyn Engelbrecht discussed infrastructure problems plaguing the residents of Waterkloof. She said DA councillors have become the call centre for people battling with poor service delivery.
“We have to sort out all the infrastructure problems,” she said.
Residents complained about the so-called smart metres for prepaid electricity the metro was installing, leaking water pipes and electricity problems not related to load-shedding.
Darryl Ross, DA shadow MEC for infrastructure services in Pretoria, also attended the meeting and accused the metro of not caring for its people and painted a bleak picture for the future of service delivery in the city.
“Forget about getting better service for maintenance and upgrades. You are not going to get better service. The reason for that is the budget for the year 2015/16. There is no money,” he said.
Engelbrecht agreed, saying: “The metro is in dire financial problems.”
Tshwane metro was not available for comment about the situation.
Read: Imminent switch of households to Smart Prepaid Electricity
Controversial contractor will not be paid commission
Metro pays R4,6 million a day for dysfunctional service
For more community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
Also like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
We have exciting news! We’re offering a free alert to help you always be in the loop. Send an email with the word ‘Subscribe’ to breakingnews@rekord.co.za to receive your free breaking news update.
