JW elaborates on damages caused by third-party contractors
Johannesburg Water reveals a shocking record of damaged pipes due to negligent contractors this month.
Johannesburg Water (JW) is determined to recover on all the bills it has issued to third-party contractors who have been held liable for negligence resulting in damage to the city’s infrastructure.
JW recently revealed shocking statistics indicating that so far, in the month of August, the entity had logged 69 incidents where third-party contractors damaged the city’s water infrastructure.
JW’s spokesperson, Eleanor Mavimbela, indicated to the Northsider that this problem results in a loss of a significant amount of water.
“Johannesburg Water ensures that these third party contractors are held liable for their negligence by billing them for cost recovery, which includes water loss, labour and materials used to do repairs,” she said.
She added, “In addition, we also have a penalty tariff which forms part of the 2017/ 18 tariff report for damages to our infrastructure. The value depends on the size of the pipe as well as how often third-party contractors damage the pipes.”
Read initial article here: Massive water outage hits parts of Roodepoort
Damage to water pipes came under the spotlight earlier this month when a construction company excavating at the Nedbank site in Constantia Kloof accidentally damaged the main water pipe.
The incident resulted in the disruption of water supply to many areas of Roodepoort. The repairs to the pipe took almost four days as technicians had to wait for the water to dry up before welding in the pipe could be done.
The period of the water outage created turmoil as residents and affected councillors were dissatisfied with the matter, wanting a speedy repair and for the incident not to be repeated.
Paulo Vinas, a representative from Franki, the construction company, offered his sincere apologies on behalf of the company as the incident was not intended.
“It’s not something we did intentionally to disrupt anyone’s life. We understand that you [the residents] have children at home and work to go to. This is an unfortunate incident, we did not do anything on purpose to cause this situation,” a remorseful Vinas said in a meeting with councillors and JW technicians amidst the crisis.
Mavimbela said the entity has preventative measures to reduce this problem. “Any contractor who needs to work inside the road reserve needs to apply for a way leave from the Johannesburg Road Agency. Part of this way leave process is for the contractor to obtain drawings of all services which include the water and sewer pipes that are situated in the road reserve where they want to work,” she explained.
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