As the current water crisis worsens, Athlone residents have called on the City of Cape Town to respond more quickly to water leakages and burst pipes to avoid water wastage.
Level 6B water restrictions came into effect on Thursday February 1, limiting residents to 50 litres of water a person a day.
Michael Quickfall said that last Wednesday he noticed water gushing from a water management device which had been installed on his neighbour’s property two weeks before.
Gadija Salie who lives at the Hendricks Avenue house, said she had called council at 5am to report the complaint and she was told she’d be sent an SMS with a reference number. When she did not receive one, she called again at 10am.
While the water continued to gush out in full force, residents took advantage of the opportunity and filled buckets with water.
It was after 10am, said Ms Salie, that the a man from the City’s water and sanitation department came out to investigate the matter, but told her that his department could not fix the problem and that he would send someone else.
“After 3pm another guy came and said that he is from the council and he switched the mains off in the road and we were left with no water for an hour.
“He said that another guy would come out to fix it and after 4pm, four men came out. They fixed it but now it is still leaking,” she
said.
Her mother, Shariefa Bardien, called on the City to speed up its response time.
“We were in shock because there was so much water being wasted. We were all up early trying to collect the water so that it does not go to waste. People came to fetch water with trucks yesterday,” she said.
Mr Quickfall added: “The council must sort something out because what happened was ridiculous. They need to come out sooner and it is still leaking,” he said.
Athlone News asked the City to respond, but by the time this edition went to print, they had not yet done so.
