Residents of Estate Street, Country View, will have to wait even longer for the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) to appoint new contractors before a sewage leak, which appeared in December, will be properly fixed.
This is according to CoE media spokesperson Zweli Dlamini.
On July 1, the City Times reported that Nape Madiseng, project manager for the Department of Water and Sanitation, and a team finally responded to calls to fix a leaking sewage pipe, which has led to Baloyi-family’s garden and home being flooded with raw sewage during April.
On December 13, 2021, contractors working at the building site of the new Rynfield Reservoir struck a sewage pipe whilst digging trenches to lay stormwater drainage pipes.
After more than four months the pipe was repaired and although it is no longer flooding residents’ homes, it is still leaking at the joint with the replacement pipe seeming to be the incorrect size.
According to Dlamini, the replacement pipe is the correct size but due to asbestos cement pipes no longer being manufactured, the industry practice is to replace the damaged pipe with an equivalent internal diameter PVC sewer pipe.
“The outside diameters do not match as they are of different wall thicknesses and will appear to be of differing diameters,” he said.
“The leak on the new pipe repair is on the joint and the contractor did not seal it correctly thus resulting in a drip at the joint.”
He said that the leak appears to be significant, however, upstream groundwater is entering the excavation through the constructed trenches.
“The repair on the joint was not addressed as the contract with the existing service provider was in the process of being terminated,” said Dlamini.
“Once a new contractor has been appointed, the pipe will be repaired.”
Ricky Coelho, chairman of the Country View Residents Association, said that this matter is not receiving the urgent attention that it requires, stating that action undertaken during the initial repair have now led to the pollution of the Sandpan.
“Due to the metro’s negligence and its contractors draining the sewage from the hole into the stormwater drains, the pan has now been polluted,” said Coelho.
“Our indigenous birds can no longer be seen feeding at the pan and any signs of fish have vanished.”
Dlamini disagrees, saying that no action undertaken during the repair could have resulted in the pollution of the pan.
“We are not aware of sewage being drained into the stormwater system, subsequently entering the pan,” he said.
“Sewer layout was provided to the contractor as drainage points. Should the contractor have erroneously discharged the fluids into the stormwater system it will be negligible.”
Seemingly disheartened, Coelho responded by saying that the association is tired of the metro’s excuses and wants to see action being taken to remedy the situation both in Estate Street as well as the pan.
“We now have to wait for a new contractor to sort out this mess while residents have to live with the foul smell of sewage,” he said.
“It seems that no matter how hard we try to improve our suburbs the metro merely allows things to fall into disrepair. We are tired of the excuses, we pay to see action, isn’t that what was promised during all the election campaigns?”
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