Two-year-old water leak costs Rosslyn business money
The company keeps eight JoJo tanks on their property that holds about 5 000 litres of water each. These tanks are filled within less than an hour while the rest of the water is left to run into the drain for the rest of the day.
A leak, which has been left unrepaired since 2021, has forced a business in Rosslyn in the north of Pretoria to build a channel to divert water to prevent structural damage to its building.
“We realised early on when the leak started that we had to come up with a plan to prevent the water from coming into our warehouse,” said the facility’s supervisor, Petros Thabethe.
“While collecting the water and using it has reduced our water bill, our company has however incurred other costs that we did not budget for.”
These included a higher electricity bill to keep a pump system running.
Clean water has been gushing down stormwater drains in the Rosslyn industrial area for over two years now.
All this while large parts of Tshwane have been without water for a couple of days as water reservoirs have run dry.
Thabethe said that the company keeps eight JoJo tanks on their property that holds about 5 000 litres of water each. These tanks are filled within less than an hour while the rest of the water is left to run into the drain for the rest of the day.
He said that they have been reporting the matter to the Tshwane municipality since the leak started.
According to him, metro representatives came to inspect the problem on several occasions but did not return with any solutions.
“In March this year, they started digging at the corner of Doreen and Brits roads, to start repairs. Nothing has, however, been done as we sit with the same problem and a big hole in the ground that is also flooded with water.”
On March 4, the metro released a statement informing businesses of an emergency shutdown of water supply to the Rosslyn industrial area.
In the statement, the metro said that they were compelled to shut down the water supply as clean water was being wasted by the pipe leak stemming from the main distribution supply.
In-ground water meter boxes that are meant to be kept dry have also been flooded with water, said Thabethe.
This could result in more problems because the valves were made of steel and steel rusts when submerged in water for a long time.
“There is a sinkhole close to our gate. We believe that the hole was caused by the continuous water leak. We tried our best to divert the water but there is nothing else we can do. Should the problem continue, this hole will only grow bigger. Who will be held liable for the repairs then?”
While this business in Rosslyn has to cope with too much water, business owners operating on Koos De La Rey Street in Pretoria North were frustrated by the constant water cuts due to pipes breaking at different sections of the road.
Rekord previously reported on the panel-beating company that had reported a total of 14 leaks in the area to the Tshwane metro last year.
The metro’s water and sanitation department replaced asbestos pipes with UPVC pipes in the north of Pretoria as part of its pipe replacement programme last year.
The ageing infrastructure and constant pipe bursts have been an ongoing concern for residents and business owners alike as they lose hundreds of rands during water outages, often without prior notice.
Rekord is still awaiting comment from the Tshwane metro at the time of going to print.
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