Rather spend the roadshow’s money on fixing water leaks

Residents are outraged by the recent water conservation road show teaching people how to save water.

“Rather than wasting money on a roadshow to save water, I would suggest that the municipality and the Department of Water and Sanitation rather spend the money on repairing the water leaks in the municipality,” said Mr Clive Hatch, former DA councillor.

It would appear that there is no urgency from the municipality to attend to water leaks.

There are cases when serious water leaks are not attended to for over a week; there are even cases of water leaks being unattended to for over a year.

Hatch said he is aware of a water leak at Hof Street in Del Judor that was reported a year ago and still not tended to.

“This type of water leak surely wastes more water than the odd leaking tap or toilet and should receive priority attention. I have also heard of municipal workers coming out to check a leak and leaving without repairing it because ‘it is too small’. It eventually gets repaired when the pipe bursts and thousands of litres of water get wasted,” he added.

Hatch said it would also be a good idea if municipal workers did every repair correctly and completely every time.

“If they did this there were not be half finished jobs and piles of rubble all over the town. One such example is the repair of the water leak in Allenby Street, repaired on about 20 November but the job has not been completed.”

The water conservation roadshow is part of the implementation of the resolutions of the Emalahleni Water Summit that took place in September to create awareness and encourage communities to conserve and use water sparingly and wisely to reduce the water losses experienced in the municipality.

By the time going to press there was no response from the municipality.