The new Ward 72 councillor Daniel Schay has bold plans for his ward including getting water infrastructure issues resolved.
“We need pipes replaced. We have major emergency water infrastructure upgrades due in the ward. Obviously, I want to see them completed as quickly as possible but correctly. The upgrades should resolve a number of water infrastructure issues we are experiencing which include a lot of bursts almost daily. We can reduce the cycle of bursts and failures within this year to make it manageable,” he said.
He added there were a lot of houses in the ward that were being sublet and illegal renovations occurring. Schay said, “We will focus on sorting those out and bringing those sublettings to normal numbers instead of having 30 people living in a house. I am working with development planning to resolve the subletting issue.”
He said road infrastructure would be sorted out once the water issues had been resolved because the water leaks and burst pipes did affect the roads.
“Stormwater systems are something we need to get right throughout the city because, in my engineering background, this is something I observed. I am working with the MMC for Development Planning to see how we can improve the stormwater systems in the city. That falls under Johannesburg Roads Agency [JRA] and it’s a challenge. So, we will look at stormwater, more on a municipal level than a ward level.”
He also expressed his concerns about the issue of the City’s utilities not clearing up after themselves. “When Joburg Water digs a hole to fix a leak, they need to come back and fill that hole at some point. When they dig up a road, the road never gets repaired. When JRA retars a road, they leave a pile of stones. All those should be cleaned up and small things like these have a huge impact on the ward.”
Schay said he would try to implement active citizenry projects such as the repainting of the street names on kerbs. “… we will be launching an initiative to be adopted by residents to get their intersections repainted. The aim is to make this ward, not just liveable, but better than it currently is.”
Share your community projects by email to naidines@caxton.co.za
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