No.1 ‘water waster’: I reported the leak

File photo: The leak was repaired immediately and information about the bill was issued to the City.

File photo: The leak was repaired immediately and information about the bill was issued to the City.

Published Mar 5, 2017

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Cape Town - Residents of Haywood Road in Crawford – the road identified by the City of Cape Town as having the highest water usage in the city – say they have been doing their best to conserve water, and blamed the high usage figure on an underground leak which was repaired in January.

A Haywood Road household topped the city’s list with usage of 702000 litres.

A statement issued by residents of the road said the homeowner in question – who did not want to be named – had discovered the problem in January when a high municipal bill arrived. An underground leak was detected and reported to the City in the same month.

“The City communicated to the owners they are not responsible for fixing leaks,” the statement said.

The leak was repaired immediately and information about the bill was issued to the City. According to the statement, the matter of the bill was being resolved between the city and the property owner.

The owner said: “I would like to stress that my family and I have done our utmost to conserve water during Cape Town’s drought. We are conscious of the situation and have been, for example, neglecting our garden, which has been our pride and joy for the number of years we have been living in the area... this is the first time a leak has been detected.”

The City’s Stuart Diamond said the resident’s water usage spiked in December and no steps had been taken to address it.

“Before publishing a list of streets where high consumers live, all customers who applied for an underground leaks rebate, a meter test, or who were disputing their bills were taken out of the equation.”

He claimed the resident had not queried his account.

Weekend Argus

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