eThekwini Municipality significantly reduces backlog in water leak reports

DESPITE grappling with vandalism, eThekwini Municipality has reduced the backlogged number of reported water leak faults in the past months from 8 000 to below 900 due to several interventions.

- ZAINUL DAWOOD [e-mail]

Phoenix, Umlazi, Chatsworth, and Verulam remain with the highest number of leaks, though this number has started decreasing sharply following the deployment of Non-Revenue-Water plumbing teams.

The eThekwini Water and Sanitation (EWS) unit presented the state of the water supply for September at an Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday.

Sibusiso Vilane, acting director of the Water and Sanitation Unit, explained that all required plumbers are on shift to deal with leaks and bursts.

He said that some areas, however, have little to no statistics on leaks, adding that the North and Central are still the areas with the highest numbers of leaks, where more allocations are needed.