A commitment towards better communication between the City of Cape Town and residents of Gordon’s Bay as well as clearer accountability were some of the key outcomes at a public meeting held at Krystal Beach Hotel on Monday night (4 December) to address recent water outages affecting the community over the past month.
Residents of Gordon’s Bay expressed frustration and anger with municipal officials, Ward 100 councillor Sean Stacey and Mayoral Committee member for Water and Sanitation Zahid Badroodien during the meeting, which was called to share information on current challenges experienced by the City in relation to a pipe-replacement project taking place in Lancaster Road in the Dobson area of Gordon’s Bay. It has over the past four weeks resulted in a number of challenges that have delayed completion of the project. Many residents of the area were left without a water supply for a total of nine days in November (“Water woes: Taps run dry for several consecutive days”, DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette, 8 November 2023).
An estimated 100 residents attended the meeting, which was opened by Badroodien after a welcome by Stacey.
“We know this is a serious situation and this is why we are here today,” the Badroodien said.
“We want to share details of the scope of the project and some of the challenges, and we want to hear complaints so that we can understand, respond and resolve the issues.
“This is a major project covering 1,3 km of pipes and is costing the City R5,7 million, so please tell us what you’re angry about.”
The Acting Executive Director of Water and Sanitation at the City of Cape Town, Etienne Hugo, provided a brief background on the project, followed by an in-depth look at some of the issues encountered by the head of planning at the reticulation branch, Anic Smit.
“We have been doing this work for 10 years, and all questions and complaints are well-founded,” Smit said.
“It does happen that things go wrong, such as corrosion, which has exponentially increased for various reasons. We work on models and attributes to likelihoods of failure for prioritisation of pipe replacement, and all signs point to the urgency of work required in Gordon’s Bay.”
During the question-and-answer session residents complained of poor communication, insufficient interim solutions, lack of accountability and also questioned the competence of the contractor.
“We are here tonight because we are taking accountability,” said Badroodien, who explained that the contractor will be fined accordingly, should it be found that the work is not being done according to the required standard.
A resident asked: “Why is there no engineer on site, why not contract a bigger team to do the work, why not work at night?” The reply was that noise permits are required for night time works and that engineers cannot always be on site, but to this end supervision of works will be improved. “The elephant in the room is that most people here don’t trust the contractor,” said Badroodien. “We recognise that is a concern.”
There was also mention of the “construction mafia” and threats to the safety of contractors through means of extortion.
“The City is working hard to counter these threats and have had recent successes in bringing these culprits before a court of law,” said Badroodien.
City officials shared contact information as well as a dedicated email account to better respond to communication from residents and assured that regular feedback sessions will keep the community informed. Other issues such as the route of water tankers, early notifications of water supply disruptions and contractor supervision will also be addressed.
