Durban – The eThekwini Municipality has assured residents that the pipe a plumber hammered until it ruptured was not a major pipeline distributing water to the northern areas of eThekwini.
On Tuesday, a 19-second video clip of an eThekwini Municipality plumber hammering a plastic water pipe until it ruptured went viral on social media, sending some residents into bouts of laughter and others seething with anger.
Most parts in the northern areas of eThekwini Municipality are frustrated as they have been without a water supply to their taps for months and in some areas weeks.
In the video clip, a plumber wearing an eThekwini water and sanitation unit (EWS) T-shirt hovering is shown standing in a deep trench next to a plastic water pipe.
The plumber is holding an object in his left hand and a hammer in his right, and hammers the object into a silver bracket. After seven strikes with the hammer, onto the object that is placed on the pipe, the pipe ruptures.
Water quickly fills the trench in which the the plumber is standing. His colleagues standing above urge him to get out of the trench.
A ladder that he used to get into the trench is also pulled out by his colleague, leaving the man stranded. The man is panicking as the water level rises up to his knees. He claws at the sand around him to try and pull himself out of the hole.
The City did not say where and when this happened. eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said they were aware of the viral video.
Sisilana explained that the municipal employee was installing a new connection for an individual consumer, also known as a domestic pipeline.
“This is not a major pipeline that supplies water to thousands of residents and businesses. This incident is also not linked to the water challenges affecting some residents in the north,” she said.
“The Municipality’s water and sanitation unit has highly qualified technical teams, which include engineers and plumbers who are committed to service excellence. The circumstances surrounding this unique and isolated incident are being investigated,” Sisilana said.
Last week, City manager Musa Mbhele said the water supply to northern areas that have been impacted by prolonged water outages has improved.
“This is as a result of the interventions the City has been implementing to improve flow of the Northern Aqueduct, a pipeline that carries water from the Durban Heights Treatment Works to the areas in the north. The Municipality has replaced 54 air valves,” Mbhele said.
These interventions are being carried out on four sections of the aqueduct and are still in progress. Water supply to most parts of Phoenix, Mount Edgecombe, Virginia, uMhlanga and Durban North has improved though it is not fully restored, said Mbhele.
Sisilana said as part of maintaining constant communication with affected residents, weekly war room meetings are held where municipal employees update community representatives about the ongoing interventions.
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