Burst pipe

On Sunday morning, residents in La Concorde, Somerset West, had an impromptu opportunity to collect water when a pipe burst, while waiting for City of Cape Town to respond to an emergency call regarding the incident. Fortuitously, an official arrived at the scene within an hour, having just driven past by chance, en route to another complaint. Interestingly, he said this complaint had not come through to him, even though the Somerset West Neighbourhood Watch (SWNW) Comms Centre, and several residents, had called it in (including expressing alarm that the road had been significantly damaged, and looked as if it could cave in at any moment), and got a reference number. Thankfully, the official was able to close the tap, and request a team to fix the pipeline. Annetjie Robertson, from SWNW, said “it seems that the message from the CoCT call centre does not get through to the dispatching centre in Bellville fast enough. This is a serious problem costing us mega litres of water… and who foots that bill? Waiting times before they switch off the taps are typically one hour plus, by the sounds of it.” Bolander will follow up with CoCT, and publish a list of contact numbers.