UPDATE: Municipality explains the sewage situation

As sewage infrastructure across Newcastle is apparently visibly failing, residents requested an explanation to the causes and plan of action that will be taken by the Newcastle Municipality.

In response, the Newcastle Municipality reported experiencing sewer blockages of, on average, 18 per day. These are reported blockages only.

According to the SED of Technical Services, Sandile Dube, most blockages in Newcastle West are caused by roots in the pipes.

“As the sewer pipes in town are old pitch fibre material, they sometimes suffer from deformation which could also result in collapse. Blockages caused by pipe-collapse take longer to unblock due to the amount of work associated with it. Other blockages are caused by foreign material not supposed to be in the sewer system, especially in town and the industrial areas,” explained Mr Dube.

He added that the Municipality could only respond to reported blockages and ones they find out about by investigation.

“We rely on the community reporting the problems. In remote areas, the problems are usually not attended to until reported by the community or seen by the municipality, resulting in most blockages taking lengthy periods to be addressed.”

Starting from this financial year, the Municipality has begun preventative maintenance on the sewer reticulation section, targeting specific problematic areas and using high pressure cleaning to restore the system.

“The challenge still remains, as the team must still attend to reported blockages while relying on a hired cleaning machine. A pipe replacement program the municipality is planning to implement will include replacing old water and sewer pipes,” he continued.

The municipality confirmed budgeting R5 million already during this financial year and a further R33 million was approved by Department of Water Affairs (DWA) to be recommended to the Municipal Infrastructure Grant for the first phase. A second phase will be in the region of R270 million.

“All related problems should be reported to the municipality immediately. We plead with the community not to dispose of any foreign materials using the sewer system, and to timeously report any blockages to ensure punctual reaction from the municipality,” concluded Mr Dube.

ual reaction from the municipality.