Sewer leaks now worse than ever
The Merafong City Local Municipality is failing to get these worsening sewerage problems under control.
Besides possibly causing sinkholes, increasing sewer leaks infuriate residents of Khutsong Extension 3.
“My customers do not come here anymore because they cannot park, and they complain about the smell,” laments Ms Lerato Skosana, who runs a beauty salon from her home, house No. 6906 in Khutsong Extension 3. Sewage has flooded the street in front of her house for several weeks.
“Three weeks back, a child fell into the filth when he tried to cross the road,” Skosana added.
The sewage has also flooded several other streets around Extension 3, and pedestrians and drivers must navigate the leaking wastewater. The stench around these areas is overwhelming, and residents say the mosquitos breeding there attack them mercilessly.
“This problem is now worse than ever,” says a community leader, Mr Chucku Kerileng.
He and other furious residents have protested about Extension 3’s sewer problems in the past and decry the municipality’s lack of urgency in dealing with the issue.
Merafong had promised to address the sewerage issues in the past once it had repaired the damaged infrastructure.
However, the residents blame another project on the main sewer line around the Xhosa Section for the excess sewage in their area.
Another issue, the residents say, is that the municipality never compensates or employs the plumbers from the community who always stand in to help residents when the sewer leaks are at their worst.
On Tuesday, the Herald took the issues to the Merafong City Local Municipality. No response was, however, received by printing time.
