Glen Austin Conservancy wary of overflowing sewer, affecting Hartbeespoort Dam
The Glen Austin Conservancy group chairperson says if nothing is being done about the sewer, the suburb will be covered in sewage.
The chairperson of the Glen Austin Conservancy (GAC) group said the current sewage overflow problem on Austin Road threatens the surrounding residents and the adjacent wetland.
Dave Allanby said what is worse was that because it was downstream, it all ended up in the Hartebeespoort Dam (Harties). He reported the overflow to the paper and the Ward 92 councillor, Charmaine Ngoepe on November 23.
He said the root cause of this problem lies with the City’s Planning and Regulatory Enforcement Authorities who are both approving and turning a blind eye to development taking place without any upgrades to the current inadequate infrastructure.
“If this situation continues, the entire area around the Austin Road end of Glen Austin will become a ‘shitty’ mess flowing through all the suburbs to the Magaliesberg. This needs to be addressed at the highest level and not just shifted around from one department to another. There’s a big clean-up operation going on at Harties – it will be pointless if fresh sewage arrives daily.”
Allanby said he suspects there is more overflowing on the western side of the road from what he has seen on November 22.
He added that the sewer has had many problems in the past because the sewerage pipes were too small and not designed to handle current development. “Going back several years, there were only septic tanks and zero sewerage-line connection.”
The ward councillor was contacted by the paper and asked if she was aware of the sewage overflow, and if so, what was she doing about it. Ngoepe responded, “I have reported to Johannesburg Water [name withheld] who in return said that he will send his team to attend to it last week [Week ending November 24]. Again on Saturday, [November 25].”
Attempts to obtain a comment from Joburg Water proved futile as the paper’s query had not been responded to at the time of going to print on December 5.
Related articles: The IIEs Varsity College Waterfall student bags three accolades at the Annual Sports Awards
