Raw sewage woes haunt town
"We are all terribly perturbed by the negligence shown by the sewerage services, and their total disregard for the law."
Dr Deon Lotz and Jan Brandt have complained about what they believe is raw sewage being pumped into the storm-water drains near Hillsnacks on the R28 by a certain sewage truck service employed by Mogale City Local Municipality.
Lotz saw one of the trucks next to the storm drain with a pipe unhooked from its back recently. He suspected the employees of the service were busy pumping the load into the drain. He confronted them and took pictures of the truck with the unhooked pipe.
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After Lotz reported the matter to Brandt, the latter confronted the municipality about the allegations.
“The issue with sewerage tankers dumping raw sewage in the Muldersdrift, Tarlton and Hekpoort areas has been coming a long time.
We often find trucks from Johannesburg, Roodepoort and Florida also dumping their sewage here. At first they used to discharge it in the streams in the areas, on farms and especially instant lawn businesses,” Lotz said in a formal complaint to the municipality.
Councillor Zillah Maguire responded to the claims by saying, “We are all terribly perturbed by the negligence shown by the sewage services, and their total disregard for the law. However, the problem we are facing is that there is no photographic evidence of them actually discharging a substance into the storm-water system. All we have is a picture of the pipe hanging off the truck itself. As much as we would like to lay a complaint and bring these men to book, it is very unfortunate that we do not have any solid evidence to do so. I drove up the R28 to check the drains and could not find any evidence to take a photo of.
Photo: Submitted.
“The municipality promised to try and catch this company red-handed, and requested the community’s assistance in catching the irresponsible people involved, They asked those who are willing to take photos to please get a clear picture of the exact location as well of the effluent being discharged out of the pipe into a drain or vlei area,” Maguire said.
Lotz also encouraged witnesses to take photographs of these trucks and the drivers to enable the local authorities to take legal action against them.
The sewage removal company in question was contacted for comment and said they would respond as soon as they can.
To report these incidents or to forward photos of these incidents, contact Zillah on 076 581 1553 or send an email to zillah.maguire@gmail.com.
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