La Lucia sewage leak a health hazard

LA Lucia residents have decried an ongoing sewage leak on Ronan Road calling it a health hazard. Barbara Jellis said the sewage problem was a longstanding one with leaks being reported since 2017.

When Northglen News visited the site over the weekend raw sewage was flowing out of a manhole on Ronan Road (near Shelbourne Avenue) across the width of the road and running into a stormwater drain.

“The sewerage piping system needs to be upgraded, at this point the piping is not sufficient to contain the flow from all the properties in the area. There is a pump station on the road that is clearly not coping with the flow and what we have is a build up of raw sewage forcing up and out of the manhole cover and covering the road. We’ve lived on the road for 30 years and while we’ve welcomed the various developments in the area, we acknowledge the municipality hasn’t upgraded the sewerage pipe infrastructure.

Read also: Residents fed up with longstanding Sea Cow Lake sewage leak

“This particular leak has been flowing for a little over a week. The last time we had a similar issue was in November last year. What is even more concerning is this raw sewage is flowing into the stormwater pipe which is then flowing into the ocean. This leak is a health hazard and we have a mixture of young and elderly residents in the area who are affected by this leak. The stench is overbearing and our calls for help have seeming fallen on deaf ears,” Jellis said.

The local resident said she acknowledged the municipality was spread thin in terms of its spending but said long term solutions were needed.

“When sewage is flowing down the road, the City send in a team who suck out the sewage overflow which cannot be cost effective considering how many times this issue crops up. The other aspect is residents are having to drive through the waste water on a daily basis and pedestrians cannot walk on that section of the road without walking in waste water,” she said.

Ward councillor, Nicole Bollman, said she had escalated the matter to the relevant municipal department and agreed the leak was a health hazard.

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