Municipality mum on Sabie River sewage issue
For five years, local farmers have complained to the City of Mbombela Local Municipality (CMLM) about the raw sewage that flows through their land and into the Sabie River.
The farmers feel the lack of effort from CMLM to rectify this problem, has caused health issues in communities around Shabalala Trust and Sabie River Valley.
“All the workers on our farm, and even my infant children, have undergone severe health issues due to the increased human waste that has contaminated our borehole water,” said local farmer JP de Waal. “Some of them, and both my children, have been hospitalised over the last few years.”
De Waal works at a farm adjacent to a sewage pump station in Hazyview. “Every time the power goes out, which is regularly, this pump station does not function. The sewage then dams up and spills over, causing a stream that runs through our farm and dams up near a well-known tourist accommodation establishment in the Sabie River Valley.”
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The contaminated water, said De Waal, can have an adverse effect on crops. “Raw sewage running through the orchards can actually cause the crops to be contaminated with E. coli. If that happens, we can write off the whole harvest and we lose out on millions of rand in potential income.”
De Waal is only one of the farmers in the area affected by the sewage problem. He has logged numerous complaints to the municipality over the last five years. “Nothing has come of it, not even a response.”
Hazyview Herald has also received messages from residents in Bongani complaining of diarrhoea due to the contaminated water. “This has been going on for a long time, but the municipality has not done anything to help us,” said Sam Khoza of Bongani.
Calls to CMLM’s spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, were rejected. In a previous answer to questions regarding the sewage flowing into the Sabie River, Ngala said the following:
“The designs for the upgrading of the Telkom Sewer Pump Station have been finalised. The City is busy with procurement processes to advertise for the appointment of a contractor to do the upgrading work.
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“The Hazyview New Mall brought with it additional flows into the existing sewerage system, hence the reasons for the upgrading of the pump station. This is the only portion giving us problems due to inadequate sizes of the collector and outfall lines draining into the Telkom Pump Station. Upon completion of the upgrading of the pump station, pollution caused by the frequent overflow, or spillages of raw sewage into the Sabie River, would have been addressed long-term.”
This response was given in February. To date, this publication has not received an update on the appointment of a contractor, or when the upgrades to the pump station would be complete.
