RESIDENTS on Havelock Road in Greenwood Park have breathed a sigh of relief as a strong sewage odor was removed just in time for Christmas.
The leak was fixed on Tuesday afternoon (22 December) after causing a stink for over a month.
Residents said a sewage leak on the road had made it unbearable to stand outside their homes.
Resident, Reece Akkers said the leak was outside his driveway.
“It was just over a month that the sewage leak was ongoing. The stench was terrible. With the festive season coming up we were worried we could not have family over. There were pedestrians walking past the raw sewage which was running down the road, I was concerned people would get sick,” he said.
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Akker said he was relieved to see the leak being fixed and the road cleaned.
“This fault took close onto two months to repair, and finally after all the logging and escalating, eventually our blocked sewer drain has been sorted out. This has been a joint effort of the residents of Havelock Road and the Greenwood Park Civic Forum. We are thankful to the team concerned for their assistance and that there are no more sewer smells,” added Akkers.
Another resident, Darrien Asbury said the smell from the sewer was so bad that he couldn’t take his daughter outside and walk around the house.
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Linda Beaumont, who also lives in the area, said: “The leak started more than six weeks ago, we have reported it many times.”
Spokesperson for the eThekwini Municipality, Msawakhe Mayisela said the City will never win the war against clogged manholes unless residents change their behaviour.
“Over 70 per cent of manholes that are clogging are as a result of alien objects disposed in our systems and this incident is no exception. We attend to such leaks on numerous occasions and as soon we turn our backs we go back to square one. We are therefore appealing to residents to refrain from using newspapers in their toilets, put a stop to the disposal of items such as tampons, condoms, diapers, and oil to our system. These are all the things that our teams are always retrieving in the event they attend to clogged manholes. The community itself must do their part or this will continue to be a moving target for the City. A team was sent to investigate and will attend to the leak,” said Mayisela.
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