Counting the cost of waste in city

A STOPWATCH, three different-sized bottles, a calculator and more than 500km  is all it took for two of The Herald's reporters to discover that millions of litres of water is being lost every month from at least 50 sites in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Two weeks ago The Herald asked readers to e-mail, text or post on Facebook about any water leaks in their areas.

Within days we received almost 100 responses with a handful of duplicates.

Last week two reporters spent three days responding to messages from residents by driving to the leaking taps, ground leaks, pipe bursts and other water-related problems.

Using three different sized bottles – a 500ml, 1 litre and, 1.25 litre – the team applied simple maths to draw up measurable readings.

If it took one minute to fill a 1 litre bottle we then calculated how much would be wasted over an hour.

This was multiplied to cover a 24- hour period and then 30 days.

The 3171200 litres of water measured from burst pipes, broken taps and damaged water meters include:

• Two million litres of water gushing out of a broken tap in Bhabhatane Street, Walmer township;

• More than 840000 litres from a broken water pipe in Auburn Street, Booysen Park;

• 10800 litres spraying from a water meter in Maluti Street, Booysen Park;

• 18000 litres spewed out from two taps in Westville informal settlement;

• 2160 litres from a communal tap in Arcadia Township;

• 4320 litres from a water meter in Rosedale, Uitenhage;

• 56160 litres from two taps in Mcucu Street, Mandelaville;

• Two leaks of 43200 litres and 7200 litres from water meters in Boboyi Street, Motherwell;

• 86400 litres, 64800 litres and 5760 litres were recorded from three taps in Red Location;

• 10800 litres from a communal tap in Mpukane street, Walmer township; and

• 21600 litres from a communal tap in Cox Street, Neave township.