POLOKWANE – The city suffers an average of nine to ten waterpipe bursts a day.
This is according to Polokwane mayor, Freddy Greaver, who says the bursts are a result of waterpipes made of asbestos, which did not weather well with age.
“Fixing the leaks costs the city a lot of money, and we do not have the R250 million to fix the CBD’s old infrastructure,” he explains.
“We cannot afford to deal with the problem, dig up the entire network to replace it with the newest technology.”
Greaver says he is hopeful that, by the end of next week, water affairs minister Edna Molewa might have good news about funding to fix the problem.
“The municipality engaged the minister, the premier and Lepelle Water and established a team to deal with the problem.
“The lost water costs the municipality a lot of revenue: the municipality loses the water that runs down stormwater drains as well as revenue through households that cannot use water when there is none available,” Greaver says.
There had been more than 400 pipe bursts in the city since the beginning of January, according to Greaver.
It takes an average of five hours to contain a pipe burst.
“We hope to have a long-term solution soon,” he says.
