Nine houses and two cars were damaged in Sun Valley on Thursday November 10, when a water pipe burst in a road reserve.
Ward councillor Felicity Purchase was on the scene.
“There was a 400mm pipe running in the road reserve between Sun Valley and Kommetjie Road which burst. It had been reported as a dam wall burst and a reservoir break, and the fire department and other emergency numbers were called, including SAPS,” she explained.
Ms Purchase said she was investigating why there had been no response from the City.
“This is something I have started an investigation into and hopefully will be able to have clarity on, after a meeting scheduled for Friday. The meeting will include all the line departments affected. I do not want to comment on where the blame lies,” she said.
“We will trace the calls and the actions that followed those calls, to see exactly where the breakdown occurred, as it is unacceptable that the relevant role-players were either not notified – or did not respond,” Ms Purchase said.
She was woken at 6am by people asking whether she was aware that the dam wall had broken, and was told houses were flooding.
“I immediately phoned the water department – they were not aware of the problem either,” she said.
“I hurried to the scene and ascertained that it was a burst and notified the senior officials to come straight to me in Sun Valley,” she said.
The officials confirmed Ms Purchase’s assessment and called for a pipe replacement team to come out from the depot.
“It was a challenge getting them activated and when they did get here, they worked late into the night,” Ms Purchase said.
She described the damage in Felucca Crescent as general mayhem.
“The brunt of the damage was in the top of Felucca Crescent where two houses were completely flooded, the pools damaged, mud deposited all over and a wall collapsed on top of two parked cars.”
Ms Purchase described how the knee-high river of water flowed down and flooded the houses in Ketch Street, where sand bags were eventually filled and made the water divert towards Corsair Way. “The locals pulled together as a team and with the help of NSRI, CMR, and other volunteers, manned the pumps to start pumping out the houses. Disaster Management volunteers and fire also arrived to assist where they could to clear drains and eventually around 8am, the water started to subside,” she said.
The City sent assessors to ascertain the damage and handed out insurance claim forms.
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