IRWIN Wentzel, a plumber and electrician by trade, has had enough of the sewage conditions in Alberton North, Andries Pretorius Street, and reported the matter on March 26.
“Where’s the ANC, where’s the DA? This sewage is running into our drinking water,” said Irwin.”Who’s who in the zoo now?”
There was a mail sent to both ANC and DA ward councillors. Councillor Bruna Haipel responded,”I cannot reply to a vague statement like that. The resident is concerned about ‘the sewage conditions’ in Alberton North. They must be more specific. Are there overflows that they have reported and were not attended to? If so, when and what are the reference numbers? Last night I reported an overflow in 4th Avenue. ‘Sewage is running into the drinking water’; sewerage cannot run into drinking water… only into the river.
“If there are concerns about the purity of the drinking water… this must be reported to the Water Department or myself as the councillor. Mr Smuts Marais, our water control official, will then go to their house and take samples to be tested.”
*Read Councillor Bruna Haipel’s letter to the Mayor in the letters pages*
The resident went on to aggressively express his concern: “The pump station does not work, they do not know where the cable is. I have called numerous people reporting this situation. You can’t accuse the workers. I accuse the big shot on behalf of my community. I say, it is around five weeks with the ongoing problem.”
The member also explained that the workers from a water care company come with sticks looking for cables. The entire unit/system/region was flooded or overloaded with sewage.
The EMM official comment was: ”We had failure in one phase of the electrical supply, causing the pumps to flood. The electrical supply was restored and the pumps dried out and repaired. The pump station was fully operational on Wednesday afternoon. The overflow of the pump station has no effect on our drinking water and the drinking water is safe to use as usual.”
We will keep our readers notified.
