Rain lashed against the windows and lightning danced while thunder provided the tune. Gert Meiring woke up, overwhelmed by the fetid stench of sewage that slowly permeated his house.
For the second time in a week, Mr Meiring and his wife, Elize, awoke to find sewage water flooding their home. The kitchen floor was almost entirely submerged, and the living room carpet covered in filth.
On December 28, the sewage pipe running along the backyard walls of the houses on Doorn Street in Arbor Park, clogged up, forcing sewage through a manhole in Mr Meiring’s yard.
“This problem has been going on for almost two years. The municipality has come to clear the blockage in the pipe, and then they leave. A couple of weeks later, the same thing would happen,” said Mr Meiring.
The main access hole for the sewage pipe is situated inside a yard two houses away from the Meirings’, and often the municipal workers have had to wait for the resident to return home before any work could be done.
“According to a municipal employee who came to see what was going on, there is another access hole somewhere on my property,” said Mr Meiring. “ They have been searching for it since January 9, and finally they believe that it might be located under some building rubble lying in the far corner of my back yard.”
Mr Meiring alleged that the municipal workers refused to move the small pile of rubble to continue the search. “They come here, do only what is necessary, and then leave. They are not looking for the cause of the pipe blocking, they just come and clear it, only for the pipe to clog up again a short while later.”
During December, Mr Meiring’s residence flooded twice; the stench unbearable.
“I have had to pull up my entire living room carpet and throw it away. Boxes and boxes of my clothes were also soaked and we had to throw all of it in the bin,” said Mr Meiring.
During one of the municipal employees’ many visits to their home, Mr Meiring requested a contact number for a member of management at community services, however, the municipal employees allegedly refused. He went to the police station, and claims he was also refused the contact numbers of the mayor, the health inspector and the town planner.
“What will happen when a natural disaster strikes Newcastle? The residents don’t even have contact numbers for municipal officials, and other officials refuse to give you any other contact numbers,” said Mr Meiring. “To put sewerage pipes on private properties where they are inaccessible for long periods of the day seems short-sighted,” he concluded.
Andrew Blair, water services manager, said the municipality had a registered servitude over the property. In an official response, Mr Blair said the owner had no right to build or store materials within the servitude. He added that it was especially inconsiderate that bricks were stacked on a municipal manhole. However, according to Mr Meiring, the municipal employees had no idea where the manhole was located, and were in fact still searching.
“Further, municipal workers are not authorised to work within a private property and as such, will not remove large amounts of rubble or bricks et cetera. This is the owner’s responsibility,” explained Mr Blair. “Our sewer reticulation teams have huge backlogs and this causes excessive overtime, as such we will not spend valuable productive time on this type of unproductive work.”
He added that the sewer team was keen to resolve the problem, but they required access to the manhole.
