RDP houses’ water waste a major concern

Buffalo City Metro has lost hundreds of litres of water from vandalised and unoccupied RDP houses in Mdantsane’s Unit P since December last year.

While metro residents have been requested to use water sparingly, residents from Unit P said they had been forced to try and repair broken water pipes from at least four RDP houses in the area.

Resident Thozamile Libala said after weeks of reporting the water wastage to BCM’s municipal office in NU6, municipal workers managed to stop the leaks in three out of the four houses.

Libala said: “The workers came on Sunday to respond to the problem but they left the one house with water still dripping. They tried to stop the water using wire but that too did not help.”

Libala and other residents are unhappy at having to live in damp and wet yards caused by the unfixed broken pipe.

“This situation has been ongoing for months now,” Libala said.

He said that it was frustrating to watch water going to waste while government “preached on radio stations” that water should be saved.

BCM spokesman Thandy Matebese said the water supply services department would shut off the water supply to the RDP houses if they were not occupied and wasting water.

“The municipality can intervene by shutting off the water supply to any consumer who intentionally does not fix his or her leaking pipes on a private property.”

Irate resident Nonkoliseko Nongwe said the leaking water had turned the gravel roads and their yards to mud.

“Our houses are situated lower than the houses from where the running water flows from.

“So the water comes all the way from the top, across the streets and into our yards.

“Our houses now have mould, the situation is not healthy at all,” Nongwe said.

Matebese said: “The responsibility of repairing water leaks inside private properties rests with the owner of the property.

“The municipality is responsible for the repair of water leaks in the streets up to the water meter of the property.”