Residents confronted with filth

BARBERTON – For weeks residents from Greyville to Extension 11 have been forced to live with the filth and unpleasant smell after a drain burst.

This reporter revisited the area last Friday, and learnt that the residents tried to open the brook so that the smelly water wouldn’t stagnate. Such a situation seems to be a normal part of life for some residents, as early last year this town made headlines with blocked sewerage drains in Extension 11.

A year later the community is still living with the same problem, but it is getting becoming worse by the day.

One of the residents, Mr Sabelo Magagula said, “This is a normal part of our lives. The drain started giving us a problem a long time ago. We reported it to the municipality, but it didn’t attend to it.

The bridge nearby also causes problems during the rainy season. It is not doing justice to the people and now it’s even worse because the water is stagnant, which means we are forced to spend the weekend with the unpleasant smell.”

He added that the stench would affect the community’s health as well. “Even if we report the matter, they don’t respond in time and they don’t bother to send people to drain the water. Is this what we voted for?”

Delivering a keynote address during the clean water awareness campaign last year which was organised by the municipality in conjunction with the Department of Water Affairs at Mgababa Section, a member of the mayoral committee, Cllr Meshack “Taylor” Nsimbini said,

“Residents in this area report incidents of blocked sewerage drains twice a week, which indicates that there’s a huge problem. We have discovered that some of the issues are caused by the people. They throw old computer parts and blankets into the drains. As a result, the pump station ends up not functioning well.”

This newspaper tried to contact the spokesman of Umjindi Local Municipality, Mr Samuel Jele, but to no avail.