Road damage, water leak frustration for Sunwich Port business owners and residents
Many feel the Ugu contractors have done a shoddy job on the repairs.
After many weeks with no water, Sunwich Port Centre businesses’ water has been reconnected, except for one.
This is a result of shoddy work by municipal contractors who were called to fix a water leak and left the R102 entry to Sunwich Port in a shabby state, forgetting to reconnect water supply to the businesses.
Business owner Arthur Mathee said after water was restored three weeks later, Ugu failed to come close the trench which was dug during the repairs. As a result he has had to fix the road himself .
“I recently had to ask my staff to cover the trench. It cost me R600 to do the repairs so that motorists could drive safely onto that road,” said Mathee.
The first leak was reported to Ugu in the last week of July, and a TLB was sent out to find the fault and repair it.
After much digging, the leak was fixed; however, the trench and piles of sand were left on the road making it difficult for motorists to drive, also having to avoid getting stuck in the trench or causing an accident.
Mathee said a second leak became evident in the same spot on Wednesday, August 17.
“The repair team arrived on Monday 22 August and I told them our water has not been restored from the first time they came for repairs. A TLB came to dig again and they dug up the entire road and pavement across from the first trench.
“They laid a new pipe and left the road in a worse condition,” Mathee added.
Ward 16 Councillor Cllr John Williams said Mica still has no water and this has been reported to Ugu.
“I also notified Ray Nkonyeni Municipality and the Department of Transport about the situation, however, to date nothing has been done,” he said.
Chris Sharpe, business manager at Mica, said he also contacted Ugu and was promised that someone would come out, but no one came.
Another shop owner, Nazeem Ajam, said this has affected a lot of businesses.
“We had no customers. They were scared to turn onto the road because of the rubble blocking the one lane of the road,” said Nazeem.
Ugu spokesperson, France Zama, said the municipality is in the process of finalising all supply chain management processes to appoint a service provider for repairs, however they were not aware of the water supply issue and would be sending someone to investigate.
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