A water leak that has affected the Weltevreden Park Tennis Sports Club for more than a month was finally repaired, bringing an end to weeks of flooding, repeated repair attempts and water interruptions.

The leak reportedly started on June 15 and continued despite several attempts by Johannesburg Water (JW) to repair the damaged pipe. During that time, residents in parts of Weltevreden Park experienced water interruptions while repairs were carried out.

Club representative Yusuf Coovadia said the prolonged leak caused extensive damage to its facilities.

• Also read: Weltevreden Park water leak enters fourth week

The Roodepoort Northsider previously reported that JW closed the water supply to parts of Weltevreden Park on June 27 to repair the damaged pipe at the tennis courts. Residents were later informed that the repairs had been completed and the water supply restored. However, the pipe began leaking again on July 3, and subsequent repairs were delayed while officials waited for replacement parts.

Coovadia confirmed that he and fellow club representative Andre Arendse discovered that the leak had been fixed when they visited the club during the week of July 20.

“It’s nice that there’s no more damage being caused,” he said. Andre shared that the damage caused by the leak would be expensive to repair.

“The damage that was caused over weeks is going to be very expensive to fix eventually, but now it’s safe. Kids can come play again,” he said.

Yusuf said the club estimates the damage at more than R600 000.

“I think we just need faster turnaround times. Millions of litres of water were lost, our facility was damaged further and now we have massive claims which we need to address,” he shared.

He added that the damaged courts have affected the club’s operations. “It was a massive inconvenience because, as you can see now, we’ve got unplayable courts.”

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The Northsider sent a media enquiry to JW on June 30, requesting comment by July 2 at noon. A follow-up enquiry was sent on July 22.

Although JW communications official Nolwazi Dhlamini advised that she had been on leave and undertook to respond by Friday, July 31, after escalating the matter to the depot, no response was received by the deadline.

A final follow-up was made on Friday, July 31. Nolwazi said they had not yet received feedback from the depot and had followed up with the relevant officials, requesting an urgent response. No further response had been received by the time of publication.

Despite the damage, Yusuf said the club is preparing for the upcoming Gauteng league season, which started on Tuesday, August 4.