‘Leaks aren’t being fixed’

It is false advertising.

That is the sentiment of a Port Elizabeth woman who says the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality must stop putting out ads that say water leaks are being fixed when she has watched one run in Winston Ntshona Street since before the lockdown.

Denise Botha, 59, said the water had been gushing out.

The municipality had done nothing about the situation despite it being reported on several occasions, she said on Wednesday.

“What I can’t tolerate is false advertising,” she said.

“Every week almost every publication there is the advertising of ‘No water, day zero is here, save water’ but when we call them for water leaks they never come to fix the problem.”

Botha said she was concerned about the clean water going down the drain and had called and sent e-mails to different officials and received references but no-one had been dispatched to fix it in at least eight months.

“I’d understand if it was dirty water, but now it’s clear, drinkable water.

“They are telling us the dams are running dry, but they are doing absolutely nothing.

“At one point, I called them, and they asked me what they are supposed to do about it. What is going to happen when one day we finally run out of the water?”

The city has been battling a devastating drought which has gripped the Eastern Cape since 2015 while the 6,000 water leaks have added to the Bay’s water woes, with clean water lost daily.

Botha said she had once spoken to a municipal worker who was checking a water leak in another street and had been told that the municipality did not want to employ contractors.

“There is always money to fix these kinds of problems, but the municipality is just not looking after the city,” she said.

“This pipe has been here for many years now, and the way the water is leaking it’s soon going to burst.

“The litres wasted every day is scary.

“Not far from the pipe there is also a leak running down the street, clean pure water.

“I don’t think they are actually fixing water leaks in this city.”

Last Thursday, The Herald reported how the Bay had frustrated organised business’s efforts to lend a hand in fixing water leaks in the city.

This is while dam levels have dwindled over the years, with the threat of day zero ever looming.

The city’s water woes have also threatened businesses, with the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber accusing leaders at City Hall of stifling businesses by not creating a conducive environment.

When The Herald queried the matter with the municipality, municipal spokesperson Mamela Ndamase said the leak formed part of the city’s backlog of leaks which were “being attended to by the seven cluster contractors on our books”.

“The contractors are used as and when required to assist and augment internal capacity,” she said.

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