The Herald reported earlier this month that thousands of litres of sewage were streaming into the Loopspuit near Kokosi. The wastewater has been streaming into the river, which flows towards the Klipdrift Dam near Potchefstroom, for some time.
Several residents complained about the problem again during a meeting in the Fochville Civic Centre on Thursday night. The acting municipal manager, Mr Siyethemba Mdletshe, promised that the municipality had employed a contractor to sort out the problems and that the matter would be attended to timeously.
By Friday, however, the situation on the way to the sewage works looked much worse.
So much sewage is currently leaking from the houses on the western side of Kokosi that a small stream is now filled to the brim with sewage. Only two weeks ago, one could see the stream at the bottom of a ditch. On Thursday, the ditch, about four to five feet deep, was brimming with sewage. Some of the wastewater flowed down the gravel road towards the sewage works.
Despite the municipality’s promises that a contractor would sort out the problems, the contractor was not even on-site.
“The contractor has not been on site for the past month. We are not sure why they left and when, if ever, they are coming back,” several sources told the Herald.
Although the contractor’s office was closed and no work was taking place, some broken pipes, a heap of bricks and a half-built pump room stayed behind. Sewage also streams from the bottom of the sewage works itself.
According to the sign in front of the sewage works, the company, Ilifa Africa Engineers (Pty) Ltd, is supposed to be “retrofitting and recommissioning” the facility.
Meanwhile, our neighbouring municipality, the Rand West City Local Municipality, was fined R10 million over its sewage pollution of the Rietspruit on Tuesday. AfriForum opened the case six years ago, in terms of environmental legislation. It was heard in the Randfontein Regional Court.
The Rand West City Local Municipality pleaded guilty to the charges against it.
“We were waiting for the outcome of this case, which is one of several cases AfriForum is currently busy with. It was the first such judgment to be made against a municipality in the country and has, as such, set a new precedent,” says the chairperson of the Fochville branch of AfriForum, Mr Jaco van der Merwe.
“In terms of the same legislation, I am also going to open a case against the council for the pollution from the sewage works at Kokosi,” says Van der Merwe.
