Thousands of litres of municipal drinking water – enough to fill five swimming pools – flooded Selborne in East London after thieves stole three water meters, and Buffalo City Metro took 14 hours to shut the flow.
Three Selborne homes were left with no running water, while water gushed and burbled down the gutters from their vandalised meter boxes.
The Dispatch was on the scene in St David’s Road at 9am on Sunday.
Water from one of the boxes shot metres high into the air.
Residents said the robbers struck at 7pm on Saturday but all efforts to get BCM to stop the wastage came to nothing.
Sounding defeated, Grant Hobbs said water had been spurting out of his meter box throughout the night.
“When you phone the after-hours emergency number for water and waste, an automated voice answers and gives two alternative cell numbers to contact and those just go to voice- mail,” said Hobbs.
Evette Olivieri said she tried to contact BCM but after no one picked up the phone, she tried the police and fire departments.
Eventually she reached someone from the municipality.
“Last night, I was told that BCM had sent someone with a truck, but that they had the wrong equipment and had to turn back. We haven’t heard anything else,” said Olivieri.
According to a BCM technical source, the thieves lift the meter box lid, close the tap – which slowly cuts the water supply to the home – and then grab the entire meter unit and vigorously bend it up and down until it breaks, much like one would break a piece of wire.
The thieves had a way of manipulating the angle of the lid of the box to ensure they were not blasted with water while stealing the meter, along with its fittings and stopcock valve.
Chris White said his entire meter unit was gone, causing a torrent of water to flow down the street.
“All I can feel is my pipe and the inlet pipe. There is nothing left in between. The whole connecting unit is gone,” said White.
By 9am yesterday, an estimated 113,000 litres of water had been wasted – the metric equivalent of 13 tons of water, almost five full swimming pools.
The wasted water created swamps on the verges and pavement areas of the three affected homes.
Water ran down the road’s slope and pooled at the Comrades Bowling Club’s grassy parking lot.
“We’re in the middle of a water crisis and BCM just lets this happen. They could at least get plumbers in to bridge it in the meantime.
“I’m not even worried about not having water, but this is such a waste,” said Olivieri, who collected some of the gushing water.
Olivieri said that at 9.30am, BCM workers arrived and in minutes all three water meters had been fixed.
“It literally took 10 minutes and the workers were so nice and helpful. If BCM had just addressed this last night, all this water could have been saved,” said Olivieri.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya did not respond to questions which were e-mailed and then sent by WhatsApp, although the blue ticks showed they had been read on Sunday...