Johannesburg - Every morning for the past month, Bezuidenhout Valley residents have woken up to dry taps and thousands of litres of clean water running down the Joburg suburb’s streets.
It is estimated that between 10 and 20 water meters a night are being stolen in the area thanks to their brass and copper components.
On Tuesday morning was no exception for Teboho Sekgapane and his neighbours along 8th Avenue who had their water meters stolen, leaving them with no water while clean water flowed freely down their street.
“I’m worried. I have two small children and there’s no water in the house because the meter was stolen this morning,” Sekgapane said.
He told The Star he heard loud noises and whistling just before 4am.
“When I looked out, they saw me and ran away into the dark. When I came outside, the meter was gone and there was a lot of water coming from where it should have been,” he said.
“What are we going to do if they don’t come fix it today? My wife couldn’t bath for work this morning and I have a 1-year-old who also needs to be clean and we can’t use the geyser because it’s dangerous with no water in it,” he said.
The Star’s WaterWatch - a forum on which residents can report water leaks - has been inundated with complaints from the Bez Valley area.
Now it has emerged that it is the result of stolen water meters, which took the City of Joburg ages to replace.
Ward councillor Carlos da Rochas has been receiving 10 calls a day for the past four weeks.
“It is crazy; these criminals are stealing them for the brass parts, and they often go to the same street twice or three times.
“Besides the theft of the meters, the water wastage in the middle of a drought emergency is uncalled for.
“Millions of litres of water are being wasted. I walk down streets on a daily basis where all you see is water pouring out of spaces where the meter was stolen, running into the streets,” he said.
Joburg Water has been “fantastic”, but simply can't keep up with the theft, leaving people without water for up to five days, said Da Rochas.
So desperate was he that he and community members patrolled the streets after 1am last week.
“Although we did not actually catch people stealing the meters, we saw groups of up to six men walking the streets and sitting on pavements at 3am.
“What are they doing up at that time of the morning? We also saw a car with unreadable back and front number plates cruising the streets at 4am,” he said.
When The Star called her on Tuesday morning following her complaint last week, Bez Valley resident Darlene Joubert said there were numerous water meters on the pavements with water gushing out of them on 8th Avenue and between 7th and 9th streets and hundreds of litres were pouring down the drains at Mandeville Club.
“This is shocking as we are under water restrictions, and all this water is going to waste, due to copper pipe theft.
“It is shocking on the part of Joburg Water, as they say they don’t want to fix pipes if they keep getting stolen,” she said.
Resident Martin Neilson said this had been going on for months.
“Every time a water meter gets stolen, Joburg Water takes ages to fix it and we lose thousands of litres of water. This can’t happen when we’re in the middle of a drought,” he said.
Another resident Andrew McKay said meters in the area were often stolen.
“It boils down to two things: Police are not doing their job or patrolling like they should be and there is too much unemployment. There are a lot of skilled youngsters who don’t have jobs and turn to crime instead; it’s concerning,” he said, adding that crime in the area was “at an all-time high”.
“When the meters leak, we get charged for the water wasted; we're all paying double or even triple what we should be paying and receiving no service for it,” said Enrica Rousseau on Tuesday morning.
Although Joburg Water said there had been an escalation in water meter thefts in Bez Valley - an area with old meters that still contain copper and brass - it disputed the claims that it was not responding on time.
Spokesman Hilgard Matthews said: “We are replacing them (copper and brass meters) with the newer ones which are mainly made of plastic, but somehow, thieves still believe there are valuable components in them.
“It is a real problem and the city is losing millions of rand a year on replacing water meters. Our fire hydrants around the city are also targeted on a daily basis,” he said.
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