Durban - An irate Reservoir Hills resident has slammed the city’s Water Department for its delay in repairing a burst meter on his property.
Despite the eThekwini Municipality’s plans to shut down the water supply during the day and use restrictors on taps while the province faces a drought, Jayen Naidu of Battersea Avenue said it took 24 hours for the city to repair the leak.
By then, thousands of litres of water had gushed through.
He reported the leak on Wednesday morning. Despite four calls to the Water Department’s hotline during the course of the day, he was told the matter was being attended to or escalated to a priority complaint.
The leak was only repaired on Thursday morning.
Naidu said the pressure caused the water to spray into the air and on to his roof, balcony and garage door.
Naidu then placed a sheet of metal over the pipe to divert the water on to the road. The wastage of water, he said, was a cause for huge concern.
According to Umgeni Water’s website, Midmar Dam was standing at 45% full, Albert Falls Dam at 33% and Inanda Dam at 77%.
The municipality recently sent out a notice informing residents of the implementation of pressure management as a drought initiative.
Municipal manager, Sibusiso Sithole, said the levels of the dams that supplied water to the municipality were rapidly dropping because of the drought.
The municipality had not responded to an e-mail asking what had caused the delay in repairing the water leak.
Meanwhile, several suburbs in Pietermaritzburg went without water on Thursday after a reservoir in the city went dry.
Msunduzi process manager for water and sanitation, Brendon Sivparsad, confirmed that the Eastwood Reservoir was at 0%, with the Bisley and Oribi reservoirs sitting at below 4%, and the Symons Reservoir at 7% capacity on Thursday.
This resulted in the water supply in the CBD and other areas being shut off. Various residential suburbs, industrial areas, court buildings, municipal offices, the legislature and schools were affected.
Sivparsad said the drought, combined with the 15% water restriction from Umgeni and the high demand for water on the public holiday on Wednesday, contributed to the water shut-off on Thursday.
He said the reservoirs did not reach sustainable levels on Thursday.
Sivparsad warned that if residents did not save water, cuts would become a common occurrence.