If you’re driving through Krugersdorp West at about 3pm, you’ll come across a road where you’ll want to roll up your windows as you pass through. During the afternoon, for a reason Johan Gebhardt and Jacques Mulder don’t really understand, the smell of sewage at the side of their home becomes much more potent.
The origin of the odour is a section of the canal which winds through a large portion of Krugersdorp West, Burgershoop and Quellerie Park.
Ward councillor Trudie Naudé said she has been struggling with the local municipality about this issue since she became a councillor four years ago.
“I’ve walked through my entire ward, and I can’t find the place where the sewage flows into the canal,” she said. Most of the canal is a well-maintained, well-built cement structure, but this section is a rocky stream with badly eroding banks.
Apart from the raw sewage flowing in from upstream, the small cement bridge on Herbert Street with its storm pipes has become a popular waste dumping spot.
Trudie noted that much of the waste gets washed down by the river and gathers here, but many people go there to dump car- and trolley-loads of waste.
About six years ago, Johan claimed, the stream was filled with fish and frogs. Today, the rocks are stained black from the sewage sludge.
It’s fallen on some members of the community to try and clean up the stream every once in a while, but there’s only so much they can do with new sewage and rubbish washing in every week.
Mogale City Local Municipality responded that their Wastewater Networks Maintenance team has investigated the matter and found a blockage upstream of the canal inside the property of Krugersdorp Correctional Services at the main kitchen, which overflows into their storm water system, and then into the municipal storm water canal.
“The municipality is not allowed to work inside Correctional Services. Correctional Services unblocked the drain earlier this week.”
A further update followed, stating: “It was found this morning, 7 November, that there is another sewage spillage inside Correctional Services again. The maintenance team has met with Correctional Services management who confirmed that they are busy with renovations in their kitchen and that they are using a mobile kitchen which is where the sudden spillages are coming from. They also committed to monitoring the spillages and will attend to any further spillages immediately”.
