THE sewage sorrows on the Bluff appear to be never ending.
This is after numerous complaints from residents who have been experiencing repetitive sewage overflow leaks, making life close to unbearable.
One such resident is Ugan Chellan, a Beach Road resident, who has a manhole situated within the premises of his home and is often on the receiving end of sewage overflows into the yard and inside his home.
“The water flows out like a river during peak times or heavy rainfall. I had to build a wall to try and create a pathway so that it doesn’t flow into my tenant’s outbuilding on the premises as it did previously.
“This has been an issue for about two years but the last three months have been unbearable. I have reference numbers and have logged close to 10 calls to the municipality recently. When workers do come out here, they assess the fault and clear it out by doing a temporary fix.
“The problem here is that there are illegal sewer connections to feed into the stormwater line. This creates blockages in the system. We also suspect that there is a collapsed line in the system. But the guys are only doing temporary fixes and the same faults and problems keep coming back, making our lives a nightmare. The smell, the flies and having to clean out raw sewage almost on a daily basis is unbearable. One of my tenants is disabled, my parents who live in the main house are elderly and my father is paraplegic. Their well-being and health is paramount and they cannot be expected to live like this,” said Chellan.
In a separate incident, a broken pipe on Armstrong Road resulted in sewage overflow onto Wylie Road recently, posing a nauseating hygiene and health concern for the surrounding residents and passers-by who frequent the area.
“The fault persisted for about two weeks. We called the municipality on a daily basis throughout that period. We experienced a lot of excuses from the contractor and the municipality workers on which party was responsible for which task in order to resolve the fault which could have been fixed in 48 hours at most, provided they were serious about their job,” said Wylie Road resident Dyrek Ramiah.
The damaged pipe has since been repaired but a neighbouring resident, Reginald Barr of Armstrong Road said the waiting period was unacceptable.
“The response time between eThekwini Municipality and its contractors is null. They have people in positions who don’t do their job. The sewer system in this area is all messed up and that’s why we get these blockages all the time. The municipality is aware of this but their response and attitude towards the issue is the biggest frustration to us as residents. This was an emergency but it was just delayed. All we want to see is where our rates are going and to get satisfactory service,” said Barr.
Ward 66 councillor, Zoe Solomon said she found that it was no communication from the city that was the main problem, but rather the lack of resources and the lack of experience of the contractors who had been assigned to do the jobs.
“This seems to be the common thread because it seems that contractors take extremely long to find out the cause of the fault and to get the right machinery, which is shared across the district, in order to successfully complete a job. This is a massive problem and it appears to be prevalent particularly within the sewage department. It is so labour intensive to get a basic service that is so necessary for the community. It is bad enough that we have infrastructure that is aged and unmaintained. It is falling apart underneath the ground. The sewages, roads and stormwater departments need a serious overhaul,” she said.
Comment from eThekwini Municipality was not forthcoming by the time of going to print.
