Metro castigated over leaking water pipes

Buffalo City Metro has been accused of wasting huge amounts of water by failing to fix a clean water leak that has been running for more than two months.

Residents of Nahoon have lambasted the metro, saying they had made numerous calls reporting the matter.

At the time of writing BCM workers were on site working on repairs.

In September, the Dispatch reported that in the past year a third of BCM’s water had been wasted.

This was revealed in a written statement by MEC of local governance and traditional affairs Fikile Xasa, which said BCM’s water loss for the 2014-15 financial year was 33%.

Despite this, clean water has been seeping up from an underground pipe at the end of Norwood Avenue, with resident Ashley Cockcroft saying that the leak, which starts near the top of his driveway and spills into his yard, had been on and off for a long time, but had been a continuous problem for at least two months.

“We do not really know where the source of the leak is but it appears to be coming from underground.

“Previously the water would run towards the back of the house, dampening some of the rooms that side.

“BCM workers worked on it and it appeared to be fixed but then a short while later the water was gushing from the driveway.

“We had to make a little hole near the drain just to divert the water away from the house,” said Cockcroft.

When the Dispatch visited yesterday water was bubbling through the ground near Cockcroft’s driveway.

Shortly after the newspaper’s site visit and our query to BCM spokesman Thandy Matebese, Cockcroft called to say that BCM workers had visited the site.

Matebese responded later in the day saying: “The leak was fixed today as the matter was only brought to the Water Supply Services upon receiving the media query. Water leaks are fixed on a daily basis as the municipality becomes aware of them.”