Lesego Maja
Lesegomaja@caxton.co.za
A trace of toilet paper is all that remains in the yard of a Greenside tenant, following a sewage blockage that flooded the garden.
The owner of the property, Irene Allen, tried clearing the blockage before realising that the problem was bigger than it appeared to be.
“We first tried to clear the blockage by rodding, but it turned out that the blockage was beyond the boundary of the property and out in the street,” said Allen
Allen said she has been calling the Joburg Water customer service line almost daily since the incident, but has not been able to get through to them.
After trying for two weeks with no answer, she sent out an e-mail and received this reply from Customer Service: “The call has been logged and the reference no is 4857920”.
“I e-mailed again asking when they could come out and got no response,” Allen added.
In the meantime, Allen had to organise makeshift paving for ease of navigation around the house, and to avoid stepping on human excrement.
Allen's tenant eventually decided to contract a professional who managed to clear out the blockage. This, however, cost Allen more than a thousand bucks, which she believes should be reimbursed by Joburg Water.
“I believe that Joburg water should reimburse us for this by subtracting the amount off of our utilities bill, seeing as this cost was incurred by them not doing their job.”
Joburg Water was approached for comment, but no comment was forthcoming by time of publishing.
