Sewer leak causes stench in Yellowood Park
Kotze said the smell is so bad that it now affects her family's health.
ANGELIQUE Kotze, a Yellowood Park resident, has been faced with foul-smelling woes since November last year and is now questioning why it’s taking the eThekwini Municipality such a long time to resolve the issue.
The stench started when the concrete sewer cover burst open and now overflows to contaminate Umhlatuzana River.
Kotze said the smell is so bad that it affects her family’s health.
“We can’t live like this anymore. We had family visit us over the holidays and they left early because the smell was overwhelming. My children have gotten sick with headaches and sinus problems. The doctor said it could be because of the pollution and the air we breath in all the time. It is really bad. We have found many dead birds and monkeys close to the river. I think they drank the water and died,” she said.
She said her complaint was logged with the municipality on 26 November and on 23 December, almost a month later. A team came out to assess the damage and said they did not have the correct equipment to fix the problem and left.
“They never came back. When I called again after Christmas, as I thought the holiday was over and someone would assist us, I was told that my first complaint was closed and I needed to log a new one. We did that and to date no one has come back to fix this. Every time I call, I get told the same story that they are sorry there is a backlog and they will assist us when they can,” said Kotze.
“I now call every week to follow up and every time I ask to speak to a supervisor, my call gets cut and if I call back I am put on hold. We are now running out of options, we just need this to get fixed so that we can have a clean river, air we can breath and to open our doors to let the wind in,” she added.
A response from eThekwini Municipality was not forthcoming at the time publication.
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