By Malebo Tseke
The Gauteng Department of Water and Sanitation’s (DWS) campaign gathered support when Tembisans threw their weight behind their sanitation and hygiene awareness campaign on Wednesday last week.
Taking place under the theme “Sanitation for Health and Dignity”, the campaign was based on a commitment to bringing dignity to the people through the provision of sanitation services.
After listening to several speakers from the Department of Water and Sanitation, the City of Ekurhuleni, East Rand Water Care Company (ERWAT) and the Department of Health, residents took the opportunity to direct questions to them related to sewer blockages in the areas.
One of the key questions was to seek clarity on the municipality’s turn-around time when attending to sewer spillage incidents, as it seemed the municipality was slow to address such incidents.
Fielding the questions, Miyelani Chamango from the Department of Water and Sanitation told the public that the municipality’s turn-around time was 48 hours for normal incidents and immediately for urgent incidents such as sewer spillages.
“The municipality is treating sewer blockages with urgency. As soon as we get the reports technicians attend to the matter,” said Chamango.
He also urged the residents to report all incidents to the municipality through the customer care walk-in centres that are available throughout the city, and via the call centre number on 0860 345 3000.
Addressing the public, deputy director for sanitation services in the Gauteng Provincial offices, Fikile Mokonoto, told the residents that sewer spillage cases were on the rise due to some residents throwing foreign objects into the sewer system.
“We are pleading with you to assist the government by abstaining from throwing stuff such as rocks and tyres in the sewer system. These objects block the system and create the uncomfortable situations in which you can find yourselves,” said Mokonoto.
Another speaker, Zama Dube from the Department of Health, demonstrated hand-washing techniques with soap, explaining that if people could follow these techniques diseases such as diarrhoea and pneumonia would be prevented.
