Gonubie homes flooded as new fibre installation and old pipes blamed

Residents in Gonubie's 18th Avenue have accused Buffalo City Metro of  shoddy work after underground water pipes burst, resulting in their properties being flooded.

On Monday residents were assessing the damage to their homes.

They say burst pipes have become a weekly occurrence. They blame service providers contracted by the municipality to install fibre cabling for the phenomenon.  

The situation is so bad some residents have had to miss work to mop up the water from burst pipes, they said.

People in other parts of the suburb have also complained about the burst pipes.  

Martin Dyushu, whose garden was completely submerged, said messages to alert the municipality to the problem had fallen on deaf ears.

“The municipality kept saying they will send a team to fix mess but nothing has happened since the weekend,” he said.

“It is devastating because it is an endless and tiring exercise. The water keeps flowing from the burst pipes.”

Another resident, Elvis Joanne, said the municipality needed to fix the burst pipes as soon as possible.

“We cannot afford to wait for a week for this to be fixed,”  Joanne said.

Gonubie ward councillor Andre Swart told Dispatch the water infrastructure in 18th Avenue was “old as the hills”.

“The pipes should have been replaced a long time ago. If there is any crack in the pipes when the fibre is installed, they break. Unfortunately it seems the diggers did not know what they were doing,” said Swart.

Resident Steven Ibeh said he felt BCM should invest in upgrading the infrastructure in all the streets and avenues in Gonubie “to avoid this catastrophic loss of water and human resources”.

BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said the municipality had “responded swiftly to address the problem".

“As we speak, our team is on site to remedy the situation. We must indicate our displeasure with the continuous incidents of pipe bursts at the hands of those digging the fibre installations and we are addressing this,” said Ngwenya.