THE bold claim by eThekwini Municipality Mayor Cyril Xaba that reported water leaks have decreased by 70% has been taken with a pinch of salt by many, including councillor André Beetge, who said the statistic was impossible to verify.

Also read: Broken water pipe leaks for three months

During an October 7 inspection of water and sanitation infrastructure in Wards 80, 81 and 88, Xaba said reported water leaks in the City decreased from 13 000 to 3900. This is despite an ongoing dispute between the City and the contracted plumbers who went on strike in March, which escalated into depot shutdowns and blockades in July and August. The dispute is over unpaid invoices, unfair or delayed payments, and a controversial shift in the municipal contracting model.

Xaba said that the city-wide intervention is part of the municipality’s accelerated programme to restore critical public infrastructure by deploying technical response teams to areas affected by persistent water leaks and sewer spillages.

“Since we started this programme about two months ago, we have seen a significant reduction in water leaks. Our goal here is not just to apply temporary fixes, but to ensure our maintenance crews clear backlog systemically, restore the dignity of our residents, and protect our environment from toxic spillages,” said Xaba.

In response, Beetge said that despite repeated requests that the daily number of outages become public knowledge, they have been purposely withheld.

“This is with excuses of double reporting, moving target, real-time changes, and more. Taking into account that there is still not a full complement of contract plumbers deployed, nor teams available to sustain a night shift, the quoted percentage remains effectively a thumb suck. This should be evident in the number of water leaks, outages and delayed responses against the backdrop of consistently high water losses,” said Beetge.

Xaba encouraged residents to report illegal water connections, which overload existing water and sanitation infrastructure. He urged the public to safeguard infrastructure by not disposing of foreign objects in sewer manholes.

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