House flooded in sewage – for six days

A 63-year-old pensioner’s Mamelodi East home in extension 4 was flooded with sewage water from a blocked drain for six days before Tshwane metro workers showed up to fix the problem.

Patricia Boshiane’s ordeal began last week Wednesday when her daughter, Nthabiseng Boshiane, noticed that water was seeping into the house during heavy rains.

“Within seconds the whole house was flooded,” said Nthabiseng.

“Municipal workers only arrived to fix the problem this week Monday – six days later.”

In that time, the pensioner and her family had to endure living with the stinky, unhealthy and hazardous sewage.

Neighbours pitched in to help with sweeping faeces and bits of toilet paper out of the house. They also dug trenches in the yard so that the water would flow out into the streets.

According to Nthabiseng, the matter was reported to the municipality on the same day via phone.

“Later, we even went to the municipal offices in Mamelodi West to report the problem.

“We were told that they would send officials to come and fix the blocked sewer,” said Nthabiseng.

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The family were happy to have municipal workers quickly show up at the scene, believing they would fix the drain blockage immediately.

“Instead, the workers only looked at the drain for a couple of minutes and told us that a different team will come and fix it later,” said Nthabiseng.

Little did the family suspect that this team would only show up only almost a week later.

She said the family also contacted a local plumber to look at the sewer since they had to walk on bricks to avoid stepping in the faeces and toilet paper.

“This was impossible for my mother to do because she depends on walking sticks to walk.”

The family said they were disappointed with the Tshwane metro since they were paying for service delivery.

“We even explained the urgency of the sewer since we have a pensioner suffering from a stroke in the house. She was stuck in the house and had to cope with the unpleasant smells for days,” she said.

“We are worried about my mother’s health after this ordeal and want to take her to doctor for a medical checkup,” she said.

Some of their furniture was also damaged.

Tshwane metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the query for the household was attended to on 28 January, following a sewage drain that overflowed because of the rain.

“The overflowing sewage was also attended to again on 2 February under a reference reported by the local ward councillor Collen Marishane,” said Mashigo.

“Seemingly it is a recurring blockage. The team will investigate the cause of the problem to ascertain whether it is not affected by the storm water ingresses which are persistent during rainy conditions.

“Our turnaround time to respond to sewer blockage is 8-24 hours once the job card is issued.”

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