Counting the years that residents of Areaganeng Street in Greenfield have faced unbearable sewage has become the norm, but this is now the eighth year.
Residents have had it with accepting their poor living conditions.
One such resident severely affected by the issue is 78-year-old Oom Jappie Jacob Moeng, who lives in the yard where the sewage comes from.
“I am continually fighting with the municipality about this issue, but no one is willing to assist,” Moeng said. “They come and take photos and promise to get back to us, but that is the last we ever hear from them.”
To his surprise, after months of pleading, municipal workers arrived to stop the leakage on Monday, 23 January. “It’s as good as if they were never here,” Moeng complained.
According to Moeng, the workers used hosepipes to clear some of the sewage but still left him with a lot of mess to clean. “Leakage or not, the smell is only getting worse. Why do they only use water, not chemicals, to kill the smell?” he lamented.
Moeng added that whether you are in the house or outside, you can’t escape it, and the heat only makes matters worse.
He says the situation has gotten so bad that his wife was forced to find a temporary place to stay while they find a solution for the sewage.
“This issue has been a great inconvenience for us,” he said.
The smell isn’t the only inconvenience for Moeng; he also has to use his grant money on medication due to infections and must ask his neighbours for clean water to drink. “I should not be living in such circumstances at my age; I am sick because of this. To make matters worse, dirty water comes out of the tap,” he said.
“I can’t afford to buy water, so I constantly bother my neighbours.” Almost every month, Moeng must take out cash loans to visit different doctors for medical assistance. “As a pensioner, I cannot afford to hire people to fix my sewerage; I spend all my grant money paying back loan sharks,” he explained.
According to residents, the sewage stops for three days and then continues again. “We are used to it, but I refuse things continuing like this,” they said.
The Herald asked the municipality for comment but had received nothing by the time of print.
