The pipes that run underneath us do so because what they carry is best left out of view.
Standing in the yard of the house she was born in, Verona Scheepers looks around at the rivers and pools of sewer water that have turned her garden into a swamp. If the lagoon-like feature was by design and the brown water substituted for the fresh variant, it would surely be an award-winning spectacle. Sadly, it is an infectious halo surrounding a family begging to be helped.
Verona’s parents had lived in the house for over 50 years and she would like to renovate the house in order to preserve the family treasure. The stagnant water has turned the grass to mush and the foundations of the house have absorbed the fluids like a slow-acting sponge. Painted just two years ago, the enamel can be peeled off the walls with minimal effort.
The filthy floods began seven years ago and while at first intermittent, have now become a weekly occurrence. A pipe that runs under her neighbour’s yard sharply bottlenecks at the division of the properties, squeezing the flow of water dramatically. When large objects not meant to be flushed down the toilet congregate at the bottleneck, the result is a torrent of water that flows through Verona’s yard and down Manuel Street for several hundred metres.
Verona explains how her family’s health has deteriorated to the point where she and her three boys have persistent stomach problems. Her 76-year-old father has had to be relocated to her brother in Mpumalanga, and her late mother, who passed way in April 2020, needed to be taken to hospital every time the pipes overflowed. “Two days before her funeral we had to dig these trenches to keep the water away from the kitchen,” lamented Verona.
Precious time and money have been spent logging calls to Johannesburg Water who do unblock the pipe, even if it is a day or two later. However, the water takes several days to clear from the easily waterlogged garden. The family is desperately searching for a solution and is bewildered as to how long it has taken to simply upgrade the pipe to a suitable size.
Ward 71 councillor, René Benjamin, has been in regular contact with Verona and hopes help is on the horizon. “Joburg Water has been taken on a walk about her property and I too have been there. I have requested an investigation and report on the matter as the cause has to be confirmed. Her frustration is beyond understandable and when the new budget kicks in on 1 July we can then ask if this is on their Capex radar,” explained councillor Benjamin.
“It is nothing personal but many people have come to the property, they take photos and then I never see them again,” said Verona. Having exercised enough patience, she wonders what it will take to rectify the situation. “Do they want the house to fall down on us, or must I lose another parent?” she asked. Water is the key to life, but the precious resource carries with it deadly possibilities.
