EKURHULENI Mayor, Clr Mondli Gungubele, has been invited by residents for a glass of sewage at “Poo Lake”.
These were the words of a resident who joked about the state of Bonaero Park’s bird sanctuary, now dubbed “Poo Lake”, because of how polluted it has become.
But the constant stench and health hazards for the community is no laughing matter. After years of never-ending sewage spills at areas surrounding the pan, residents of Bonaero Park want answers from the leadership of the metro regarding the ongoing spills into the pan.
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Ward councillor André du Plessis on Wednesday morninglast week had an on-site meeting with furious residents, who said nothing had been done by the metro to sort out the problem.
According to Du Plessis, the sewage spills are the result of mismanagement by the metro over the past three years, when Tsekema Contractors was appointed in June 2013 to replace the old perforated leaking pipeline with a new one. This project was meant to be completed by February 2014.
“However, instead of drilling through a layer of hard rock when installing the new pipeline, the contractor simply laid this new infrastructure on top of this rock layer, resulting in the new pipeline not functioning properly,” Du Plessis explained.
“Three years later sewage is still flowing into “Poo Lake” and the R2.9-million the metro spent on installing the faulty new pipeline has been wasted.”
Du Plessis says serious questions now need to be raised regarding the metro’s “failure” to properly oversee the project, for example, not having one of their own engineers on site to oversee the project, not holding Tsekema Contractors accountable for their shoddy work and also not ensuring the problem was rectified immediately.
“Bonaero Park residents, members of the Bonaero Park Community Precinct and I have been reporting the numerous sewage spills to the metro since 2013. I have also personally sent numerous messages and pictures of these spills directly to the mayor and submitted a petition to the council on this matter. Yet the metro and Gungubele have done nothing to fix this mess to date.”
Recently the Water and Sanitation Department stated they must first apply for a water licence, which needed to be issued before the municipality could start installing a new pipeline. This process could take up to 18 months, which means residents will need to wait, possibly for another two years, before the sewage issue is finally over.
The sewage spills have contaminated the sanctuary, some of the birds have died and others have been forced to leave their home. However, this is also a health risk for the community.
“People are becoming ill because of this issue and all the bacteria coming from the raw sewage. We, as the community, are not willing to wait another 18 months to get this job done. What happens to our health in that time? It gets worse,” a community member said.
Du Plessis concluded: “Gungubele needs to intervene immediately and ensure that action is taken to install a working pipeline as a matter of urgency.
“We are calling on him to conduct an oversight visit to Bonaero Bird Sanctuary within a week and to explain to residents why the metro has failed to address their grievances and what his plan is to stop the sewage spills and the further contamination of the sanctuary.”
