Merebank residents take a stand against ‘stink’ in community [Video]

THE South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), together with scores of frustrated residents, held a peaceful picket to air their concerns about the sewage stench in the area.

Wanting their voices to be heard, the residents, who were armed with placards, stood along Badulla Drive in Merewent last Friday.

Also read: Air pollution test confirms high levels of benzene in Merebank

Bongani Mthembu, SDCEA’s air quality and health officer, thereafter handed over a memorandum of demand to Lusapho Tshangela, acting head of the eThekwini Municipality’s water and sanitation department, outside the Merebank Southern Waste Water Treatment Works (SWWTW) plant.

He said the purpose of the picket was to highlight the ongoing health problems faced by the community and to express their dissatisfaction with the alleged failure of the SWWTW plant’s management and the eThekwini Water and Sanitation department to implement a proper, permanent solution to address their concerns.

“Our community has been greatly impacted by the unacceptable sewage smell emanating from the SWWTW plant. The foul-smelling air has become a regular daily and hourly occurrence for many years. The community is angry and exasperated with putting up with the terrible smell.

“The management is aware that the residents are being impacted by this foul-smelling area and that their homes and families have become the sacrificial zone in the South Durban Basin (SDB). Our community is living in an unhealthy environment which is impacting negatively on our quality of life,” he said.

Mthembu said residents felt as if they were prisoners in their own homes, having to keep their doors and windows closed, especially during meal times.

“This has become more unbearable due to the hot and humid weather we are experiencing. Despite members of various organisations, led by SDCEA, engaging with management to resolve this issue, there has been no satisfactory result or intervention. We were promised various solutions with time frames which are yet to be accomplished.

“The community is further frustrated as their efforts to engage the City remain fruitless. We often lodge complaints with the City call centre to report the foul stench, however, their solution is to send contractors to clear our drains, despite informing the agents that the stink is emanating from the SWWTW plant. The community of Merebank hereby demands that the SWWTW and the City do everything within their power to realise our basic human rights to a clean, healthy environment,” he said.

Tshangela, who addressed the residents, said the department was implementing various measures to address their concerns.

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