Stop those leaks

IT is no secret that we live in an arid country where water is a precious resource.

It is also very evident, based on your recent article (‘Hot, humid and dry’) which revealed that last year’s rainfall figures were the lowest since 1938, that we are in a critical drought situation.

No doubt we can all play our part, by limiting the water we use in our homes and re-using as much ‘grey water’ as possible, such as watering the garden with used bath or washing machine water.

We could also capture rain water through installing tanks.

However, what we as residents can save is negligible compared to the millions of litres we see being lost through broken pipes in the City’s reticulation system.

As a jogger, I report many such burst pipe cases to the municipality…but am amazed that days or even weeks later the gushing water has still not been attended to.

I understand that our City loses close to 40 percent of its water due to leaks and theft.

I have observed that a lot of work is being done on upgrading the reticulation system, so well done for that.

But if the maintenance teams could get to breakdowns far more quickly this will make a huge difference to the water loss situation.

By the way, when I do see repair teams they always seem to appear at the end of the day.

Is this to score overtime, or is it a more technically opportune time of day?

WATER SAVER