The City of Cape Town says it stands by their top 100 water wasters list released this week.
City spokesperson Priya Reddy says their data is accurate and based on actual readings.
This comes after Zara Nicholson, spokesperson to Mayor Patricia de Lille, this week admitted that an underground leak was to blame for the highest reading – in Haywood Road, Crawford, at 702 000 litres.
The house belongs to two pensioners who told the Daily Voice a pipe had burst on the property last month, which they had to fix themselves after the council failed to assist.
Other residences on the list claimed faulty meters were responsible for the high usage readings.
Nicholson said officials will now be going out to all the houses on the list to check for underground leaks.
However, Reddy said any leaks on private property are the owners’ responsibility.
“The City stands by the integrity of its data. The top 100 list is based on the actual water readings,” she says.
“The City’s Water Inspectorate is currently inspecting the various properties on the list and engaging with property owners.
“According to our records, not one of the households reported a leak through the City’s many channels or sought any kind of assistance from the City.
“It must be borne in mind that the responsibility lies with residents to monitor their water bills, to identify leaks – even if these emanate from underground pipes on their property – and to have them repaired. Leaks constitute consumption: the bigger the leak, the higher the consumption.
“The City is only mandated to maintain the pipes up until the boundary of privately owned properties.”
Meanwhile, the Water and Sanitation Department says it will be tightening water restrictions in municipalities across the province as a crippling drought continues, and dam levels dropped to a disastrous 23 percent.
Head of the department, Rashid Khan, said calls to declare the province a disaster area were premature as the City “was not doing enough” to save water.
He said the department is looking into reports of major leakages and that it was municipal managers’ responsibility to investigate these incidents.