Wonderboom Street resident fights growing swamp in field outside his home
Reinstatements after municipal projects and maintenance an irritation for Welridge Residents Association.
Impenetrable at first glance, even concrete is at the mercy of water.
Having lived in his home for 27 years, the earth beneath Loris Vita’s feet is getting stodgier by the day. Loris built his beautiful slice of the mediterranean along the greenbelt that forms the Rooihout Avenue Park and conscious of the groundwater, Loris consulted an engineer when constructing his dream.
Built with a complex labyrinthine drainage system under the house, the abundance of water is further illustrated by the two-metre deep well constructed on the property. To aid drainage outside the boundary walls, there were also several trenches in the adjacent field funnelling water through to the stream in the valley. The rock and mesh-lined trenches have since been damaged by heavy machinery that moved through the field during subsequent construction projects by residents and the municipality.
This lack of run-off has left the water to pool in the corner of Loris’ property, partially under the foundations of his garage and the rest in the gentle basin where the field meets Rooihout Avenue. The result of this swelling ground water is severe damp affecting the walls of Loris’ home, forcing him to delay the completion of his renovation projects. Unable to paint the walls for over a year, the stagnant water also gives off a swamp-like stench.
Other than the damp, the sewer pipeline replacement project has created a series of unplanned incidents. Six ruptures of the pipe within a ten-day period forced multiple outages, with the last of the batch being a massive burst in nearby Thorn Avenue which flooded three houses. With Loris being downhill, his home was one of those with water coming through the boundary walls and pooling in the lower levels of his home.
Welridge Residents Association (WRA) has made several attempts to contact municipal entities but claim to have been shunted between entities. Loris is confident that reinstating the trenches would alleviate any pooling-up of water under and outside his home. Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo stated that any construction of overflow trenches would need to be done by Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), with JRA advising that any service request may be done through their online portal at jra.org.za.
