Residents of Waterfall Hills Retirement Estate in Ward 132 have been left with restricted access to the estate after a water burst caused an ever-growing excavation and road closure.
Ward 132 councilor Annette Deppe said she first reported the explosion to Johannesburg Water on August 4, after water started gushing from the road near the equestrian estate circle. According to Deppe, Johannesburg Water arrived at the site the next day and excavated the area in an attempt to locate and repair the problem. However, more than a week later, the repair remains incomplete.
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Deppe said the dig has since expanded, with the entire road closed to traffic. As a result, residents are forced to use a single lane to enter and exit the retirement complex. “When I called Johannesburg Water, the depot manager told me they didn’t have a tractor-loader-backhoe (TLB) available to come and work here.”
She added that the manager told her he would get back to her after a meeting, but four hours had passed with no update. Deppe questioned why residents were forced to deal with the outage for so long and why the water outage still hadn’t been resolved. The prolonged excavation has also raised concerns about access to the retirement estate, particularly given that residents now have to share a restricted access route.
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In a separate area inside the room, Deppe said there is other work that the water company has not finished, due to the lack of availability of TLB. “It’s in both Region A and Region E. I don’t know how they’re going to do without the TLB.”
Johannesburg Water was approached for comment on August 13 about the incident and the concerns raised by Deppe. The company was asked when the explosion was first reported, what work had been completed at the site, why the repair was still pending more than a week after notification and whether the TLB shortage was delaying the work.
Johannesburg Water was also asked when the repair was expected to be completed and the road reopened, as well as how it was addressing residents’ concerns about disruption.
The utility acknowledged receipt of the questions on August 13 and a reminder the following day to respond, but did not answer the questions. An update to the story will be provided if more information is provided by Johannesburg Water.
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