Water runs while we wait for service

We had a water leak in our main pipe that feeds the house. the leak was due to old age and the deterioration of the galvanized pipe. We reported the issue to Discovery on the Monday morning and they responded by sending out a team to locate the leak only on the Thursday. We were informed that we didn't take out the extended plan to cover the pipe deterioration, so the best that could be done was to locate the leak, and if it was determined that the leak was due to rotten pipes, Discovery would seal the pipe and walk away. This was acceptable to us. However it took 3 weeks from reporting the issue to when a team would come out and dig up to establish the cause of the leak. We have tenants on the property so we have to supply water. Eventually while waiting for the service providers to come to us, the water supply collapsed and no water was reaching the house at all. At this point we were forced to take matters into our own hands, we cancelled the claim and repaired the pipes ourselves. The problem here is that the duration that it took for the service providers to get to us, caused us damage as the water bill was ten times more than normal (R 18 000 ex VAT). We feel that if the response time had been shorter, this could have been avoided. Needless to say, we asked if we could claim for the water bill. After sending 6 months worth of utility bills clearly showing the reasonably consistent water usage until the damaged pipe caused the large water consumption, we were only covered for a "standard building damage" that amounted to R 5000. We feel that the excessive water bill was caused due to the long response time. If we were aware that it would have taken so long, we would have sorted it out sooner ourselves. We are not happy with this at all.