This is the question on many residents’ lips.
Over the past two weeks the Addie has been inundated with complaints about blocked drains in the CBD and surrounding areas.
Daggafontein resident Sean Wallace first reported his drain problem in November 2013, and is yet to receive a satisfactory answer from the Ekurhuleni Metro.
The toilets for the Grade eight to 1l girls at Veritas College in Pollak Park were out of use for almost two weeks due to problems with overflowing drains, before being repaired.
A business in Argon Road, Fulcrum, has been battling for more than a year regarding their severely blocked drain and they were told by the metro to open the blockage themselves.
Ekurhuleni Metro spokesman Themba Gadebe claims all the complaints mentioned have been attended to and the drains are now functional.
“If a consumer is requested to open the blockage it merely means it is a private blockage,” he says.
This means the sewer is blocked from inside the property and not in the municipality’s main sewer line.
Gadebe says illegal mining is a real challenge and does at times contribute to the sewer blockages.
An assessment of the pipelines needs to be done before the metro can take a decision to do any replacements.
“However, we have an asset register which is updated yearly and some of the projects can be prioritised from the information which they have,” says Gadebe.
“Projects will be undertaken as per the available budget and according to the prioritisation.
“There are a number of reasons for sewer blockages, but blockages do occur and if it is reported and consumers get reference numbers, the problem will be attended to according to the available resources.”
