Metro urged to fix stormwater drains to save roads

“The metro must become more effective at repairing and resurfacing roads,” Ward 24 Clr Kabelo Mahonko said recently.

Jannie van Niekerk and Ward 24 Clr Kabelo Mahonko discuss a stormwater drain in Ninth Road, Cloverdene.

While discussing the state of the roads in her ward with the City Times, she said many roads either had too many potholes or – in the case of dirt roads – weren’t levelled often enough.

At a property in Ninth Road, Cloverdene, she added, water was continually flowing onto the road, from a pipe on the sidewalk.

Kabelo said the water had been flowing down the road for weeks and was damaging the tar.

Jannie van Niekerk, the owner of the property, said the water was overflowing from the borehole on his property.

He said groundwater surfaces every year, with heavy rains.

“I care about this – I hate to waste this water,” van Niekerk said.

“I want to install another pump here, to take the overflow when this happens; but if it fills up, the overflow will continue. There’s only so much I can do.”

At his property in Ninth Road, Cloverdene, water continually pushes up from the ground, according to Jannie van Niekerk.

Addressing Mahonko’s concern for the road’s integrity, van Niekerk said the metro should improve its stormwater drains in the road.

Van Niekerk showed Mahonko and the City Times a stormwater drain several dozen metres from his property, where the intake of the drain was raised above the road.

Any flow of water less than several centimetres deep simply could not go into the drain.

Mahonko said she would take the matter up with the roads department.

A stormwater drain in Ninth Road, Cloverdene. The intake to the drain is too high to allow the continual flow of water in the street to be diverted.

Furthermore, said Mahonko, Patten Road, in Rynfield Agricultural Holdings must be resurfaced, as it is “disastrous”.

“Eva Road in Fairleads needs stormwater drains – the water overflow is damaging the road too much,” she said.

“Half of the road was recently redone, but they left the rest.

“If they focus more on building and cleaning stormwater drains, it will alleviate the pressure of constantly redoing roads.”

An enquiry was sent to the metro, but no comment was forthcoming at the time of going to print.

Do you have roads in your neighbourhood that need repair? Email bctletters@caxton.co.za.

The information will be sent to the municipality.