Hectorville and Croydon Park residents are the latest to feel the wrath of SA’s ageing water mains as bursts keep happening

WATER mains are bursting in Adelaide like it’s going out of fashion, with five ruptures in the city’s northeast in the past week.

• Two burst water mains flood homes, cars in Campbelltown, Paradise
• Residents blast SA Water over response to flooding, burst mains
• Minister refuses to change law to compensate for flooding
• Still in hotel 7 weeks after burst main flooded home
• More water mains burst at Hectorville and Croydon Park

WATER mains are bursting in Adelaide like it’s going out of fashion, with five ruptures in the city’s northeast in the past week.

Mains burst at Hectorville and Hampstead Gardens on Tuesday morning, on the back of recent blowouts in Croydon Park and Paradise.

Water gushed down suburban Ross Rd, Hectorville, for several hours before engineers arrived to perform emergency works.

Terry Hackett, Hectorville, told SA Water of burst at 6.15am but got recorded message. Still leakin #adlnews pic.twitter.com/zsBn6ctqQl

— Doug Robertson (@dougrobbo3) March 14, 2016

Ross Rd resident Terry Hackett, 66, noticed the torrent shortly about 6.15am and thought someone further up the road had overwatered their garden.

“It was only about one metre (breach in the road surface), now it’s a lot worse and (the breach) is now three or four metres,” he said.

“I tried calling SA Water but they didn’t respond so I left a message. I said ‘please come immediately’ and then I called SES and they came within five minutes.”

Lucy Sciarrone said her sister, Maria, reported the burst main to SA Water about 6.30am and was told a repair crew would be there in “between one and five hours’’.

“I think they should come beforehand because we are very concerned here,’’ she said.

SA Water on scene @ Ross Rd, Hectorville. pic.twitter.com/cv5AP8uhuF

— Doug Robertson (@dougrobbo3) March 14, 2016

An SA Water worker arrived about 10am — almost four hours after water began spouting through the road in two places — to shut off the water flow but a repair crew was not expected until at least an hour later.

Water was cut to about 100 homes at Hectorville on Tuesday, leaving residents worried about being denied basic amenities.

“I’ve already had a shower but I’d like to have a shower tonight before I go to bed,’’ said Romano Rossi, who cares for his elderly father. “Luckily, I filled seven or eight buckets with water (before it was turned off) — you’ve got to think ahead.

“Luckily, I got my dad up early to have a shower (because) we’ve got to go to the doctor.

“It’s not the end of the world, it could have been worse, there could have been a hole in the ground and destroyed some houses like it’s been in the past.”

Mr Rossi, who said Ross Rd was resurfaced last year, suspected the water main was leaking underground for many weeks.

“We’ll soon find out when they start digging ... how deep that hole is,’’ he said. “The rubbish truck was here this morning and he was a little bit concerned about (the road collapsing).’’

Another resident, Jose, who did not give her surname, said she discovered the mains water was off when she turned on the tap just before 8am.

“Luckily, I grabbed some water and put it in a bucket to drink, just in case’’ she said. “I do care when it comes back on.”

A burst in Croydon Park on Monday night caused peak-hour delays on Tuesday morning after Regency Rd was closed to eastbound traffic.

Homeowners in Paradise were left digging trenches in a bid to divert water away from their properties after a burst on Friday afternoon.

It has been claimed that SA Water did not attend to the damaged main until Monday morning when the issue received media coverage.

But SA Water has denied ignoring frustrated Paradise residents for three days.

SA Water operations manager Mark Gobbie said crews attempted to isolate the leak on Saturday morning and asked people “not to overreact to these situations”.

Linton Schiller with his wife Jenny and daughter Lauren, in what’s left of their lounge room after their house in Paradise was flooded by a burst mains pipe last week. Pic: Tricia Watkinson

Mr Gobbie said the leaking pipe was the same 100-year old main that burst in four places and flooded several homes at Paradise, Newton and Campbelltown last Monday.

“We’ve been checking the flow regularly since then and (Sunday) morning we realised the two valves we isolated on Saturday hadn’t sealed properly and they’ve now been sealed,” he said.

Avenue Rd resident Joyce Michele, 76, said she and neighbours had repeatedly contacted SA Water since the main burst on Friday afternoon.

“There was just water running everywhere. It was unbelievable,” she said.

“The back shed was just full of water. It was a lake. My son described it as Kakadu.”

An SA Water employee at Avenue Road, Paradise, where a water pipe has burst again. Pic: Tricia Watkinson

Ms Michele said her son, Daniel, had to dig trenches to divert water away from her house.

She said she was angry it took until Monday for SA Water to address the issue.

“We rang and rang and rang. We are just fed up with it all,” she said.

Mr Gobbie said there had been five leaks in the area — four of them along the same 450mm pipe — since last Monday, but he did not want to speculate on the cause.

He said it was unclear whether it would need to be replaced entirely.

“We’re working through an investigation into the cause and doing some asset condition assessment on the pipe to decide what we are going to do with it in the longer term,” he said.

“This is a particularly unusual set of circumstances and our number one priority is to work with our customers and makes sure that they are back in their properties as soon as they can.

A muddy bog left after the water main burst on Avenue Road at Paradise. Pic: Tricia Watkinson

“From a broader perspective, I think it’s important for people not to overreact to these situations.

“It is not good for the people involved but we want to make sure that we are making the best asset protection decisions in the long term.”

Linton Schiller, whose home was flooded by up to 30cm of water when the torrent cascaded down Willow Drv last Monday, said the response to the latest water main burst was unsatisfactory.

“People are trying to do the right thing ... the response from SA Water is not what you would hope and not what you should be expecting,” he said.