Municipality – please clean up storm water drains

Madam – I have an opinion on the subject of the municipality keeping storm water drains clean in order to prevent flooding during the rain season.

To take an active interest I remove debris and items in the drain along my street frontage.

Despite this the drain becomes blocked because the rubble is not removed by the roads department or cleaning section. It would help if the relavent department of the municipality made a greater effort to clean and remove rubble from the drain sytem, especially open gutters along roads.

My property was flooded recently after heavy rains due to storm water entering as a result of blocked storm water gutters in the road. This caused extensive damage and an additional costs to mop up. My plea goes to the municipality to please remove rubbish from storm water drains.

Trevor

Response from Newcastle Municipality Communications Unit:

The Department is finalising a storm water Maintenance Plan for various areas and we anticipate to have most of our storm watercatch pits and underground storm water reticulation pipes cleaned out.

The high intensity of rainfall does choke our storm water system resulting in a back flow, thus flooding the surface of the tarred road. The Department will ensure its Maintenance Plan be implemented effectively and efficiently.

Issued from J. H. Thulasee – Divisional Head: Roads, Storm water& Buildings
Technical Services (Civil)