Sewage is filling up yard

A Strubenvale family had to seek alternative accommodation for last Tuesday and Wednesday nights because raw sewage water and “sewage solids” such as condoms filled 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 on Tuesday morning when they discovered around 12:30pm that the sewage pipe situated outside their home had broken.

There was previously a problem with this pipe, but it was resolved in December last year.

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 is living close-by.

Liam was recovering at home after having an operation.

It felt to this family at that stage that each time their neighbours were pulling their toilet chains in their homes, the yard was getting fuller of this stinking rotten water.

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

“Everyone just passes the buck,” she feels.

The grass is still covered in a brown-like 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 did it, 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.

At the Addie’s visit to their house, on Tuesday, Lindi said she was worried about her four dogs that were standing in the water at the gate.

She said on Wednesday morning she dipped and washed the dogs on the previous night and locked them away from the dirty water.

A Strubenvale family had to seek alternative accommodation for Tuesday night because sewerage water and ” sewage solids” such as condoms filled their front yard.

Freddie Matfield of Largo Road, Strubenvale says his girlfriend Lindi Jayne and her son Liam (7) were at home on Tuesday morning when they discovered around 12:30pm that the sewerage pipe in their driveway had broken.

There was previously a problem with this pipe, but it was resolved in December last year.

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

It seems to Freddie as if each time some of their neighbours are pulling their toilet chains in their homes, the yard is getting fuller.

The metro officials did arrive at 4:15pm on Tuesday and temporarily fixed the pipe.

One of the metro-workers did attempt to clean up the yard with one pump, but the man had to abandon his efforts by 7:30pm when he did not get help.

By 9am on Wednesday morning some of the water drained out, but the pipe was not fixed yet, nor the remaining water in the yard pumped out.

This puddle of ankle-height sewerage water has caused a serious inconvenience to the family.

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

Liam was recovering at home after having an operation.

Lindi says it was not pleasant to sleep on the floor in her mother’s house, where the family had to sleep on Tuesday evening to escape the sewerage stench and worries about getting illnesses such as cholera.

At the Addie’s visit to their house, on Tuesday, Lindi said she was worried about her four dogs that were standing in the water at the gate.

She said on Wednesday morning she dipped and washed the dogs on the previous night and locked them away from the dirty water.

She is also very worried about how the yard will dry up, because hard rains’ water remain in puddles for days.