Joburg Water spokeswoman Millicent Kabwe described the problem as ‘a minor burst pipe’ which she said was fixed in July last year.
“This query was logged on 21 July and closed 23 July last year and it was reported as a minor burst pipe, not a sewer leaking into a dam,” said Kabwe in response to questions e-mailed to her by Fourways Review.
Kabwe’s response followed after residents of Farmall’s Sandspruit area in Cosmo City recently organised a walkabout along the river to identify points of the leakage.
The residents are fuming, alleging that the spillage was not solved, adding that it was bringing a foul smell to their dam.
Resident Anthony Irving said, “Our dam is smelling worse than it did when this fault was reported.”
Irving alleged that nothing was done, even though the problem had been reported to Joburg Water.
Written communications between Joburg City officials seem to suggest that the local authorities were battling to get to the bottom of the problem, and numerous attempts to identify the issue seemed to draw blanks.
Cornelius Coetzee of Joburg Water, however, confirmed in March to Silver Mabusela of the Office of the City Manager that they attended to the sewage spill at the Kya Sands informal settlement.
In the same month, a Mr Neel, whose first name is unknown, wrote to Mabusela confessing that the problem was never solved.
“Today the team is busy repairing a broken 150mm sewerage main in Epson Road in Kya Sands and then tomorrow I will walk the river myself because no one can supply us with proper info to get to a point to start looking for other problems,” said Neels in a mail written on 31 March.
But two months later, the same foul smell remains.
Residents invited the local councillor, officials from Joburg Water, Pikitup and Joburg Housing for a walkabout on 13 May, which never took place. This was because Pikitup, which is responsible for removing the rubbish pile at the site of the pipe burst, did not turn up.
Ward councillor 96 Matome Mafokwane said he was disappointed by the postponement.
“The walkabout has been postponed again to a new date which is still to be announced,” said Mafokwane.
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