Residents of 26th Avenue in Welverdiend are once again facing a health crisis as raw sewage flooded their street this week.

On January 19, waste was seen streaming from several manholes along the road. As 26th Avenue has never been tarred, despite pleas from residents, drivers ran the risk of their vehicles getting stuck in mud.

This street is the lowest in this section of Welverdiend and sits just across a patch of open veld from the Wonderfonteinspruit.

The leaking sewage flows directly into the Wonderfonteinspruit, which later joins the Mooi River that supplies Potchefstroom with its drinking water.

While the Merafong City Local Municipality unblocked two manholes in the area last year, they had not yet attended to the newest problem by the time that the Herald visited the scene.

One of the previously blocked manholes leaked for two years before it was finally repaired.

The municipality’s marketing and communications manager, Temba Fezani, says that they would attend to the problem, and will also investigate why it keeps on recurring in this area.