Umbilo church faces massive sewage crisis
According to Father Dane Elsworth of St Cyprian's Anglican Church, raw sewage has been flowing onto the church grounds since March 24.
ST Cyprian’s Anglican Church in Umbilo is a historic Durban church that holds a special place in the hearts of Berea residents. However the once-pristine church grounds have now become a cesspool of raw sewage, since a municipal sewer line that supplies the church became blocked.
According to Father Dane Elsworth of St Cyprian’s Anglican Church, raw sewage has been flowing onto the church grounds since March 24. “I am frustrated and sickened. It is difficult for staff members to even sit in their offices for a long time because the stench is so bad,” said Elsworth.
Elsworth said he has reported the issue to the municipality twice, and although there have been contractors who have visted the church, no work has been done to solve the problem. “I reached out to an independent plumber, and we discovered that the church has a French drain, and although that means it’s a bit more complicated to fix, the amount of time we have been dealing with this issue is still unacceptable,” said Elsworth.
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The French drain works by encouraging groundwater to seep into the drain with layers of gravel. Water travels through gravel much more efficiently than soil, so once water soaks into the soil, it quickly enters the pipe.
Elsworth says the raw sewage continues to build up daily. “We are experiencing serious property damage, and the sewage is constantly flowing into the church grounds and is leaving a nasty stain on the concrete and bricks in our walkway. The only way we would be able to solve that issue is to use a high-pressure water-hose.”
The pastor said the sewage continued to flow throughout the Easter weekend. “Although members of the church still want to attend church, these conditions are horrible, and we don’t want to subject our church members to this any longer.”
“I am worried about my health and the health of the church members and staff members; this is a major health risk and becomes worse by the day. I have received no sufficient help from the municipality or our local councilor,” concluded Elsworth.
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Losing battle
The eThekwini Municipality’s head of communications Lindiwe Khuzwayo said it should be noted that the City will never win the war against clogging of manholes unless residents change their behaviour.
“Over 70% of manholes that are clogged are because of alien objects disposed of in our systems, and these incidents are no exception. We attend to such leaks on numerous occasions, and as soon we turn our back, we go back to square one,” said Khuzwayo.
Khuzwayo says the municipality is appealing to residents to refrain from using newspapers in their toilets and to stop the disposal of items such as tampons, condoms, diapers and oil in the system. “These are all the things that our teams are always retrieving in the event of attending to clogged manholes. The community itself must do their part or this will continue to be a moving target for the City. Teams will be dispatched to investigate and will be attending to the matter,” she concluded.
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