Leaking drain has Ormonde resident frustrated with Joburg Water
Water issues in Ormonde mount because Joburg Water struggles to fix them all.
Ormonde resident Colleen Ramlah has struggled with a leaking drain in front of her home for almost nine months.
She has laid countless complaints with Joburg Water (JW), which did three inspections to find the leak but no actual work to pinpoint the cause.
According to Ramlah, inspectors came at odd times and simply surveyed the drain, marked where the leak could stem from and left it at that.
“It’s an issue I have followed up on since April. They have tried to issue me a new log number on each occasion, but I kept referring to the initial number because it remains unresolved. In the meantime, hundreds, if not thousands, of litres of water have been wasted daily. As a concerned citizen, this is unacceptable and disappointing, especially since I do my bit to conserve water in our water-scarce country,” said Ramlah.
An excerpt from an email sent by Ramlah to JW yielded no response or action from the utility.
“This call was logged on April 24. It is now nine months later. It is still not resolved. JW has been out to assess the problem at this drain multiple times. Sometimes it is different assessors, and other times it is the same assessors coming to assess a problem already assessed and assessed multiple times before.
“We seem stuck and can’t move past the assessment stage. What we need is a plumber to come out to fix the problem. SA is a water-scarce country. The Vaal Dam is only 34% full, and the Department of Water and Sanitation is implementing up to level 3 water restrictions. Do you not think JW could fix this issue urgently?”
The Southern Courier is yet to receive a comment from JW on the matter.
