Sewage from the taxi rank oozes onto road

Sewage from the Ballito taxi rank flows down the pavement and across the road to the Ballito Junction traffic circle, and has done so the past two weeks.

The leak, which can be seen coming from a small opening in the ground at the foot of the entrance to the taxi rank, appears to be a minor water-pipe leak, but the strong odour gives away the crude reality.

Michael Sigasa, network supervisor at Sembcorp Siza Water, said the leak was investigated by his team on January 27 and they discovered that the problem is the result of an illegal sewage connection made by KwaDukuza municipality.

“We found that KwaDukuza had connected their emergency ablution facilities for the taxi rank to the Sangweni Tourism Centre’s septic tanks, which are designed to accommodate Sangweni alone. The amount of sewage from the taxi rank ablutions to the septic tank resulted in the tank getting full and overflowing,” said Sigasa.

He added that Siza wrote a letter to KwaDukuza to get the problem resolved within 24 hours, but “they distanced themselves from the matter”.

Lebo Makhanya, a domestic worker from Groutville is one of many people who use the rank everyday to travel between work and home and she said that state of the rank is bad.

“For more than two weeks, it has been very bad because of the smell, and on hot days it is especially bad,” said Makhanya, who said pedestrians like herself have to watch where they step when they walk in and out of the taxi rank.

Another daily user of the rank from Shaka’s Head, construction worker Nkosinathi Ngcobo said he is furious about the way he and other people have been forced to tolerate the leak for this long.

“Some drivers go very fast and spray people with the sewage water as they go past,” said Ngcobo.

Ballito councillor, Colin Marsh, said the leak is “unacceptable” and should have been dealt with sooner.

“This is a health and hygiene hazard of the highest order and the absolute lack of service delivery is disgusting – especially because it is in such a public place,” said Marsh, who added that since KwaDukuza has no municipal sewage and sanitation department, he would be taking the issue up further with Ilembe District municipality.

“KwaDukuza had no right to make that illegal connection in the first place, but Ilembe’s sewage and sanitation department is supposed to empty Sangweni’s septic tanks twice a week, which they did not do at all last week.”

KwaDukuza municipal spokesperson, Sifiso Zulu said the municipality would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by the leak and that a service provider has been appointed to ensure the place is clean.

Until then, Michael Sigasa said that Siza has arranged for Vacuflo to desludge Sangweni’s tanks as a matter of urgency in order to relieve the build up of sewage at the site.

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