SECUNDA – A huge, continuous sewage spill in Danie Theron Street that seemed too big for Govan Mbeki Municipality to tackle since the beginning of December, now has caused fish in the dam near Kruik Church to die.
A resident living in the area affected by the sewage leak, Mr Willa Bezuidenhout, said: “It is so sad that our hard-earned money that we pay towards the municipality, lands up in some people’s pockets and are not used on what is necessary.
“Sewage overflowing in some areas is running straight into our once beautiful dams and kills everything inside the dams.
“I cannot even take my son to one of the dams in our town to go fishing, because it looks so bad.”
Mr Bezuidenhout took photos of dead fish in the dams. He and his son visited several dams in Secunda during the December holiday and he said that it is sad to see how everything is falling apart.
“In the 40 years that I have been living in this town, I have never seen it in such a bad state. The municipality should be ashamed.”
Ms Mariaan Chamberlain, DA councillor, said this sewage leak was already reported to Govan Mbeki Municipality early in December.
She followed up with municipality regarding this issue later in December and they finally sent a team out to repair the problem. The team however, could not open the particular pipe from which the sewage was leaking.
According to Ms Chamberlain, she was told during the holiday period that the municipality would get a contractor to repair the pipe as they do not have the proper equipment.
They had to follow the correct channels to have the pipe repaired, but many of the municipal staff were on leave.
Ms Chamberlain then decided to contact Smet Jet for help.
“They have a larger truck than the municipality and I thought their truck might be able to open up the pipes,” said Ms Chamberlain.
The workers of Smet Jet tried to open the pipes from three different manholes which were pointed out by municipal staff, but they could also not get any further. They believed that an underground pipe might have collapsed.
“They were able to get the rods about 10m into the pipe and not any further,” said Ms Chamberlain.
Eventually the municipality contacted a company that had the right equipment to open the pipes and the manager of the company returned from his holiday earlier to help out the municipality.
However, according to Ms Chamberlain, this man, who was ready to begin working on the pipes on Saturday, 4 January, was stopped by the municipality on Friday.
“They said they first needed to get a go-ahead, but in the meantime the fish are dying and the sewage is still leaking,” said Ms Chamberlain.
The municipality even received a warning from a health inspector on Thursday, 2 January regarding the sewage problem.
By time of going to press on Monday morning, 6 January, the municipality still could not give this company the green light to proceed with opening up the sewer pipes.
Ms Chamberlain said she was going to see the municipal manager that day to hear what is the hold up.
A few residents said on social media they also have sewage problems in their areas.
One man said a few months ago they also had sewage problems and it was pushing up in their shower. They got someone out to fix it, but now they have the same problem again.
The Ridge Times contacted the communications department of Govan Mbeki Municipality on Monday, 6 January and they received the questions the newspaper sent, but did not reply at the time of going to print.
