Angry residents on Riethaan and Eeufees streets in Florida Lake in Roodepoort are trying to get answers from councilors and City Power about why the area is experiencing frequent power and water outages.
The situation worsened during this week, in addition to suffering regular load shedding scheduled by Eskom, power supply often goes off and does not return for hours, causing refrigerated food to rot as thugs invade the area and steal houses. . Often electricity does not return after load shedding due to shutdowns that occur during load shedding.
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The current blackout, which is not the first, started on Wednesday afternoon and no one from City Power came to solve the problem because some residents reported and received acknowledgment of the case. This follows a similar outage that occurred on Tuesday last week and lasted until Friday evening when power was restored while the week before the power outage started on Monday and was only restored on Wednesday.
The situation worsened due to a burst water pipe on Eeufees Avenue which has not been attended since Wednesday. Some homes are without water, while others are experiencing very low pressure due to a leaking pipe that has not been fixed since Wednesday.
One of the residents, Ziyaad Naidoo expressed his frustration with the situation. “We, the people who live in Florida Lake, Roodepoort who live in the same extreme conditions from November to the date of every week we do not have lights for three to four days at a time. It has become so insurmountable that we have to live without power and water for a long time -how many days.
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“We don’t get help from councilors or updates on the situation. It doesn’t matter where we are in Roodepoort, if there is a cable fault, we are affected as Florida Lake,” said Naidoo.
According to Naidoo, residents have approached ward councilors but have been rebuffed. “We are asking for answers and also help from the MMC in the Council. Living in this area has reached a boiling point and it has become a living hell,” said Naidoo.
Another Florida Lake resident on Eeufees Avenue, Natalie Smith has been greatly affected by the loss of income as all her tenants have left because they cannot afford the situation. “I’m very frustrated with the situation in Florida Lake, we have outages almost every week that last three to four days in a row and on top of that we don’t have water because the pressure is low. I’m so tired, I’m tired, I really can’t take it anymore, said Smith.
According to Smith, who was cooking his dinner outside with two black pots using a fire made in an old wheelbarrow, he said despite paying rates and service bills, the community did not ask for proper services from the municipality. He prayed for political parties, government and councilors to care and intervene in the situation. He agreed with Naidoo that he had experienced three outages in the past three weeks and that Florida Lake would have been affected when the Roodepoort area had an outage.
“As we speak, we don’t have power, we don’t have water. I’m just frustrated. I have anxiety, I can’t sleep at night it’s just a mess. I’ve reached the point where I can’t do it anymore because I’ve lost my tenants. I’m unemployed. I’m producing income by renting out my two cottages, but now the tenants have gone to other places where they will have power,” said Smith.
Florida Lake is an island residential area located between Eeufees Avenue and Riethaan Street on the west side of Florida Lake. Residents have complained about regular burst water pipes in Eeufees and endless water leaks in front of some houses in Reitman, but all these problems have not been resolved.
The underground pipe leak was ignored for two months
An underground pipe leak in the main pipe outside 78 Eeufees Avenue which spilled into the house and affected other houses underground in Riethaan Street, was reported over two months ago, but to no avail as the problem was not addressed by Johannesburg Water.
Residents also complained to the council and City Power about the high bills they received after the new electricity smart meters were installed. One resident said the problem needed to be addressed as he was being overcharged by City Power even though “we don’t use much electricity”. Others said they were getting huge bills even though they hadn’t used electricity, so they wondered where the bills came from.
Councilor Caleb Finn said there was a cable fault located behind Shoprite stores that affected the Florida CBD including Fieldhouse, Goldman and Plaza) and hoped power would be restored by 8:00 p.m. Friday night. But others said the Florida Lake outage was a different matter and power could not be restored in the area.
City Power and Joburg Water could not be reached for comment on the noise and water leak in Eeufees Avenue, Florida Lake.
Last week, Roodepoort itself experienced a water shortage and load shedding at the same time affecting areas such as Putri Wilropark, Lindhaven and surrounding areas.
“Every week the whole community around Roodepoort has to travel to Krugersdorp and shopping centers and malls to get water for toilet facilities,” said resident, Phumudzo Mukhwathi.
– ericn@citizen.co.za