HIGHVELD – With the Govan Mbeki Municipality’s escalating Rand Water bill amounting to R192 119 428 according to a report on 30 January, no real urgency is being shown when it comes to repairing water leaks in the Govan Mbeki municipal area.
Ridge Times received numerous complaints during the course of the week from residents regarding clean water that is being wasted due to broken pipes.
A resident who stays on a farm outside Trichardt close to the N17 highway, sent a video of water gushing out of a burst pipe.
The burst pipe had been reported since October and to date no repairs have been made.
“The amount of water that has been gushing from the bust pipe filled my dam in November last year. It is a disgrace with the amount of water that is being wasted and Govan Mbeki Municipality is doing nothing to fix the problem.”
The resident, who also owns horses, is unable to use one of her camps because of the water leak.
“If a horse is exposed to too much water they can get greasy heel which results in the horse becoming lame,” said the resident.
While following this story, Ridge Times received a call from another resident in Secunda.
Ms Andrea Gaskin had reported a leak to Govan Mbeki over a year ago. She was given a reference number, but to date no one has responded to her calls nor the leak.
The broken pipe is next to an electrical box. The bottom half of the electric box is under water, and thus raises an alarm of an electrical shock and a fire hazard.
DA councillor, Ms Ciska Jordaan for Ward 25 is aware of the burst water pipe on the farm. She said the DA has been following up on the situation since approached by the resident in October.
“This week was the first time we received a response from the municipality indicating that someone will finally be attending to matter.”
“Water losses are mostly related to infrastructure problems, specifically the issues we are now dealing with, such as burst water pipes or water leaks. Almost 32 per cent of the water that the municipality is buying from Rand Water is a loss. Besides the wastage of precious water, has a huge impact on the Rand Water bill.”
“The DA has proposed near to every council meeting over the past year for regular reports to the council on how the municipality is tackling water losses and decreasing this percentage so as to improve the massive bill that the municipality is receiving from Rand Water. In addition, last year a motion was submitted by the DA specifically relating to the upgrading of water infrastructure to avoid residents being without water for days on end and to curb huge water losses. To date, there has not yet been any response from the mayoral committee which was instructed by the council to look into it through the acceptance of the motion.” said Ms Jordaan.
She said it is unacceptable that residents should bear the brunt for the unwillingness of the ruling party to follow advice of the opposition.
“Rand Water has been throttling the water pressure to our towns because of the inability of the Municipality to manage its funds and maintain its infrastructure to pay its debts,” Ms Jordaan said.
Govan Mbeki Municipality, did not at time of going to press, reply to an email sent on 13 February.
