‘Cambridge water leak left unfixed for four months’

Cambridge residents are irate after alleging that BCM has allowed a water leak to go on unattended for months.

LEAKING: Water flows into Fairlands Home from a leak on Scholl Street. Residents allege that the leak has been going for at least four months
Picture: MATTHEW FIELD

The leak seems to originate near Scholl Road and flows through Fairlands Home. When the GO! & Express inspected the site recently, water was flowing pretty strongly and had formed a small river which cut through the Fairlands gardens.

Theo Pienaar, owner of Theo’s Garden Service and a sub-contractor at Fairlands, said this wasn’t the first leak he had discovered in the area.

“I found a place in the bush where I found a leak. That was about eight months ago,” he said.

While BCM managed to fix that leak, the current one sprung up about four months ago.

Pienaar said he has reported the leak to BCM multiple times but so far there has been no response.

“They don’t care,” he said.

FREE FLOW: The leak has been left unattended for so long that it’s created a minature stream that runs through Fairlands Home Picture: MATTHEW FIELD

He also pointed out how allowing the leak to continue was especially bad given the ongoing drought which still grips the BCM area.

“This is all wasted water,” Pienaar said.

When contacted by the GO!, BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said they were aware of the leak but were waiting on fittings before repairs could proceed.

“There were two leaks. One was repaired and the other has been excavated.

“Fittings are needed for that one. It’s a trunk main.”

Ngwenya also said that turning the water off in the meantime was equally unfeasable.

“We can close it but then it will affect half of Cambridge,” he said.

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