The City of Ekurhuleni’s (CoE) lack of a water-use licence is the cause of the delay in repairing a section of stormwater servitude in front of the Riverleigh complex.
The Eastleigh complex is home to resident Les Tindale, who believes the damage caused to the servitude during the November 2016 floods led to his perimeter wall and portion of his property collapsing into the servitude several years ago.
Tindale and a representative from the complex’s body corporate spoke to the NEWS in the April 21 edition of the NEWS, Three years of servitude woes, about the situation and provided feedback they had received from the CoE.
In response to a media enquiry, the CoE divisional head of communication and media relations, Nhlanhla Cebekhulu, confirmed an Environmental Impact Assessment was approved in February with no objections.
“The next step will be to obtain the water-use licence authorisation from the Department of Water and Sanitation,” said Cebekhulu.
“Upon receipt of this authorisation, the relevant department will carry out the detailed design and subsequently carry out the repair work.”
He said the main challenge preventing repair work was obtaining the licence.
“[Work will start] as soon as the licence is obtained and sufficient budget is made available to execute the said works.”
When asked if the remediation work, which occurred on the Beverly Avenue servitude, could not be extended to the Eastleigh servitude, Cebekhulu explained this would not be possible.
He said, “The current water-use licence is only valid from the intersections of Beverly and Cowie avenues to Cunningham Road.”
Although this problem has existed for multiple years, it is still too early to estimate how much it would cost the CoE to remediate the servitude to a fully functioning and safe standard.
“A detailed design must be carried out before an estimate can be determined,” said Cebekhulu.
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“It might have cost the city less in terms of repair work; however, it would have been illegal for the city to conduct any work within that section of the stream without any authorisation.”
Cebekhulu said the CoE is also aware of the portion of the servitude’s concrete lining near the High Road Bridge, which has eroded. He said after the city obtains its licence, a consultant will be appointed to formulate a detailed design.
Once this has been done and the designs are approved, the CoE will appoint a contractor to start repair work.
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