Sewage stench is terrible

A Strubenvale family had to seek alternative accommodation for last Tuesday and Wednesday nights because ankle-height raw sewage water and “sewage solids” such as condoms filled most of their front yard.

Freddie Matfield of Largo Road, Strubenvale, his fiance Lindi Jayne and her son Liam (7) are still reeling under the stench of this sewage spill.

Lindi and Liam were at home last Tuesday morning when they discovered, at around 12:30pm, that the sewage pipe situated outside their home had broken.

There had previously been a problem with this pipe, but it was resolved in December.

The water, with some sewage solids from the broken pipe, was flowing out of the puddle around the pipe, situated in the driveway, into the family’s front yard.

Lindi had to put plastic bags around her feet on Tuesday morning to get Liam out of the house to leave him with her mother, who lives close-by.

Liam was recovering at home after having an operation.

Lindi comments that it felt like every time a neighbour flushed their toilet, the yard was filling up with stinking, rotten water.

The pipe was repaired last Wednesday and some of the water was pumped from the garden, but they were still waiting for the clean-up team to get rid of the dirt on the grass on Thursday.

“Everyone just passes the buck,” she feels.

The grass is still covered in a brown substance and the men who repaired the pipe said a clean-up team will get rid of it.

Although most of this water receded, there was by the weekend still a puddle close to the drainage system in their yard.

Lindi says the Ekurhuleni metro staff after repairing the pipe, had put lime on the grass, but as she described it was “a little sprinkle here and there”.

The metro’s men also gave the family a packet of lime for them to put onto the affected areas.

Lindi put the lime on the grass, but was disgusted by the fact that they did not give her any instructions.

“My skin feels burnt, may hair is dry and my eyes and chest are sore. I’ve ruined my commitment ring from Freddie. I am fed up,” Lindi said on Friday.

This sewage spill has caused a serious inconvenience to the family.

As a result of the sewage stench and worries about getting illnesses such as cholera they had to sleep at Lindi’s mother’s house on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, where it was not pleasant to sleep on the floor.

Themba Gadebe, spokesman of Ekurhuleni metro confirmed that this was a sewer main pipe which had a burst.