Alex residents live with sewage flooding homes for years

Several families at a stand on 13th Avenue in Alexandra have been living in soggy and smelly conditions from effluent which has been oozing out of a pipe for the last three years.

This despite numerous reports they say were initially made weekly to authorities until they lost hope of a solution as the problem received no attention.

Fumanekile Lalendle who has lived on the premises for over six years, said life has been hell for them, and in particular children, who are forced to play in unhealthy conditions risking waterborne diseases. He said the authorities fixed the leak once, but it burst immediately afterwards and no one has returned to repair it.

“We have many reference numbers from the local authority for our complaint but no one seems keen to assist us. Besides the health risks to all residents, children are forced to play in the street risking being run over by vehicles,” he said.

Lalendle added that the condition worsened during the rainy season when the effluent and that from the nearby stormwater drain gushed out in torrents, flooding their homes and destroying property.

“Besides human waste, strange and unsightly things are also emitted into our homes,” he said.

The residents also have no toilets which forces them to beg to use their neighbours’ toilets. They are often unwilling to assist for fear of damaging their toilets from over use.

“This forces us to empty human waste in drain openings rather than risk our safety travelling some distance to unhealthy bucket toilets at night,” said Lalendle.

The residents’ problem is similar the one of other residents on 21st Avenue which was reported by this paper in DA comes to the rescue, week ending 13 March. There, a DA councillor solicited financial resources to engage a contractor who fixed the problem. This, he said, was despite council having a programme to revamp toilets.

Details: Fumanekile Lalendle 072 219 3145.