Since the last article I wrote about the sewer in Meyersdal I have been inundated with phone calls from residents about sewer issues.
The latest problematic area that has been brought to my attention is the vlei in Soetdoring Street, I went to investigate the claims of an ecological nightmare and what I found is nothing short of criminal. The vlei, which has a tributary for the Klip River running through it, is being pumped full of sewage.
According to community members, the same reasons given for the Meyersdal issue is being used here, that it is the residents gutters that terminate into the system that is causing the issues.
I went to take a look at what is happening and what has happened over the last few months. The area has a number of challenges that it faces, one of the greatest is that it is an area built on clay soil and is a catchment basin which simply means that when it rains the houses in that area are flooded and the water takes a long time to subside. I see that Clr Visser has had council come out and dig furrows through the vlei to channel water away from the houses into the tributary; this at least will assist with the flow of water.
I believe that she too had the water and sewerage department out to assess the issues with the overflowing sewer network. While I can see that some effort has been made from the department’s side, the problem is far from being resolved.
Our infrastructure network is under immense pressure and in many places in need of an overhaul; this is a drum that I have been beating for over two years now but to no avail. We are poisoning our wetlands and creating a very untenable situation in this area. However, just as bad as the sewer is of course the illegal dumping and here the community needs to shoulder the blame. Council is not dumping building rubble into this stream and while it still has a long way to go into rectifying the sewerage issues, having the problem compounded by dumping is surely not helping.
We all need to become custodians of our green spaces; it will require a joint community effort to curb the problems that this eco-system faces but as long as we turn a blind eye, or assume that it is someone else’s problem, this will never come right and ultimately it will be our children that will pay the price and it will be a very high price indeed.
