Raw sewage runs through Mill Hill garden

Mill Hill resident Laurence Watkins recently expressed disappointment about the lack of effective assistance from City entity Johannesburg Water following the continued inpouring of raw sewage that flows through his property from a blocked pipe.

According to Watkins, the blockage can occur up to four times a year and on each occasion, the raw sewage floods into his garden. “The solids remain on our property while the liquid seeps through onto the neighbours’ properties.”

Ward 102 councillor David Potter added that sewerage bursts occur from time to time. “Where these occur Joburg Water is usually responsive and repairs within a few hours of logging,” he said.

Watkins noted that with each occurrence the issue was indeed reported to Joburg Water but no real solution is provided. “Joburg Water does nothing about this other than send a crew to unblock the pipe and a couple of days later send a crew to it clean up,” he added.

Potter continues to encourage residents to log matters that they see in the streets with the City. “[Residents can] then escalate it to their councillors if logged issues are not resolved, remembering that not all issues are resolvable due to resource and other constraints,” he concluded.

Johannesburg Water spokesperson Isaac Dhludhlu reported that Watkin’s issue was resolved. “The job was completed successfully and apologies to the resident for the inconvenience.”

Watkins, however, added that the situation has not been effectively resolved. “They came to unblock the pipe but no long-term solution was made. It is just going to happen again.

“The issue is that this is becoming more frequent and not only is it a health hazard but nobody seems to care about resolving it,” Watkins concluded.

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