The owners of a property in Vale Road are at their wits’ end because thousands of litres of clean, drinkable water is constantly flowing through their property.
The water ends up in the road in front of their house where it accumulates and causes major pothole problems which then lead to serious damage to vehicles. This issue has been a headache in the community for many years and, to date, has still not been solved.
Mischa, one of the property owners, whose surname is being withheld for security reasons, demanded a correction after Roodepoort Northsider wrote about the problem on Page 3 in the 16 September 2016 issue.
The article stated that a drain on their property was illegal and that the owners had done nothing to rectify this. The story was one-sided and Northsider did not give the owners of the property the right of reply.
Mischa emphasised, “People must be made aware that we are desperately trying to solve the problem. The water from properties in the vicinity flows directly into our garden. This is probably why the previous owners installed the drain.
“The whole road became a big pothole. We and our one neighbour even filled the potholes with cement and small stones. It’s like putting a plaster on a boil.”
The property owner has contacted the Joburg Roads Agency (JRA) several times and the agency tried to solve the problem. “[The agency] tarred the road again a month ago and it is open again because the problem is the water. There is nothing else we can do. JRA is working on a solution,” she said.
Misha showed Northsider the email correspondence between her and the roads agency and added that they filled the pothole every time, but the problem persisted.
David Brand, DA ward councillor for the area said, “The water crosses the street because of the slope and I had JRA out to look at it. As a temporary measure, they will get the local depot to build a small trough to divert the water to the closest storm water drain.
“Unfortunately, because of the water that runs down the street, people think it comes from a leaking or burst pipe. They also think it is negligence on the homeowner or Joburg Council’s part. Neither is true,” Brand emphasised.
Mischa added, “It breaks my heart when I think of the shortage of water in our country, and yet, here we have a stream of pure water that runs into a drain. We do not only have a pothole problem because of the water. We also have a drought problem and thousands of litres of water is wasted every day.”
Bertha Peters-Scheepers, the operations manager of communications and marketing at Joburg Roads Agency, confirmed that a pipe needs to be installed from the drain to the nearest storm water drain to divert the water. “We are currently investigating the best way to solve this problem as soon as possible.”
