Douglas Sickle said he dreaded the next rainfall as it meant he would have to drain water out of his house. He said that whenever it rains, water comes pouring down the street into his, and his neighbours’, yards.
Sickle has had to build a ramp outside his home on 7th Street to reduce the amount of storm water entering his property. He also had to elevate the entrance to his cottage by a two-brick height. “Both of these don’t help much as the water still comes gushing into the cottage, inconveniencing the tenant,” he said.
“All the authorities have to do is fix the storm water drain up the street and the water will not be as much – once they do that we can manage the problem. The water comes all the way from Louis Botha Avenue and right into our homes.”
“When it rains the water comes above knee-level and I have to put sandbags [down] to reduce the amount of water – and that does not even solve the problem. The driveway looks like a dam when it rains,” he added.
Sickle said the street lights didn’t work and if it rained at night, it was almost impossible to deal with the water. “At night, 7th Street becomes pitch black and getting rid of the water is a nightmare. I have called the Johannesburg Roads Agency several times and all I get are reference numbers, they don’t come to fix the problem,” he said.
When approached for comment, Johannesburg Roads Agency spokesperson Bertha Peters-Scheepers said the agency would look into Sickle’s issue. “We will investigate and revert,” she said. Ward 73 councillor Marcelle Ravid was unavailable for comment.
