Bonaero Park residents flooded with sewage once again

Sewage woes for Bonaero Park are far from over and a lack of communication from the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) has left residents at the end of their tether.

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Sewerage coming from the pump station again flooded into properties bordering the Bonaero Park pump station last week.

“The pump station is the biggest problem. The city keeps doing temporary fixes but I don’t think it helps,” said Yolindie Leipoldt.

“They must decommission the station because it poses a massive health risk to us and everyone around.

“It violates our rights to live in a good and healthy environment. All our attempts at being civil about this do not help and I am now seeking the advice of a lawyer.

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“No one in the city has to live, eat and sleep with this but we do every day,” she added.

Leipoldt added she is also concerned about the health of the security officer stationed at the pump station.

“He doesn’t have anywhere proper or clean to sit or even have his lunch. He is permanently surrounded by raw overflowing sewage.”

The May 4 edition of the Kempton Express reported the city’s failure to find a timeous solution to the issues.

In response to questions the Express asked, the CoE spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said the outfall sewer pipeline from the Bonaero Park sewer pump station to the Pomona sewer pump station was initiated as part of the phasing out of the Bonaero Park sewer pump station.

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They hoped this would address overflows due to lack of capacity and cater for future development in Bonaero Park and Pomona areas.

“They have completed and approved the designs. The city is in the process of allocating a contractor.

“The anticipated date for the resumption of the installation of the outfall sewer pipeline was the beginning of May,” said Dlamini.

“Construction is being done over multi-years with R13m available for the 2022/23 financial year to address the outfall sewer pipeline. There is a provision in the 2023/24 budget to continue with the project.

“Confirmation of the allocated amount is subject to the final budget approvals,” said Dlamini.

He added that load-shedding had caused the flooding of the motors at the pump station.

“The city is busy upgrading the pumps from dry well centrifugal pumps to submersible pumps. This will avoid damage when the pump station overflows during load-shedding.”

He said the process is underway to obtain an electricity generator as an alternative power supply.

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Last week, the Express again questioned the city on the progress on the remediation of the problems at the Bonaero Park pump station.

The Express questioned whether contractors had indeed started working on the outfall sewer project as indicated and whether a date could be supplied for the decommissioning of the pump station.

Also questioned was whether the city had obtained a generator to ensure sewage is pumped through the station during load-shedding and what was done to mitigate the health risk to residents surrounding the pump station.

The request for answers and comments was sent to the city on May 17 and a response was requested by 10:00 on May 22.

At the time of going to print, we received no response.