Sesmylspruit sewage leak being addressed
The metro said that repairs on a broken pump were expected to be completed by the end of the week.
Residents of an estate near the R21 highway are concerned about sewage leaking into the nearby river, while they live with the unbearable smell in their back garden.
The metro has confirmed that it is working on repairing the broken pump that was causing the leak.
Metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said pump repair was expected to be completed by August 16.
“The Rietvlei Heights pump rotating assembly is broken,” explained Mashigo.
“In the meantime, a spare pump has been installed while the pumps are being repaired and will be reinstalled, hopefully, by next week.”
He said that the metro was only made aware of the complaint at the end of July and immediately began working to get the pump repaired.
“The residents should stop dumping foreign objects like cloth material into the sewer system as it has a negative impact on the pumps,” he said.
“They should also not direct their stormwater into the sewer system.”
Sewage has been flowing from the back of the Rietvlei Heights Country Estate from the broken sewage pump.
The pump house doors are damaged and the pump house is flooded with sewage from the estate.
From the pump house, the sewage flows down in the front of several households into the Sesmylspruit River.
The river has been a topic of concern recently, as protests last week about an upstream coal mine have raised concerns about the delicate ecosystem of the Rietvlei Nature Reserve.
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Sewage enters the river as it exits the nature reserve, before joining the Olifantspruit River in Irene to become the Hennops River.
Ward 65 councillor Gert Visser said that he was aware of the issue.
“The overflow of sewage into the Sesmylspruit due to a dysfunctional pump station is unacceptable,” he told Rekord.
“A realistic and sustainable plan of action is being put in place to prevent overflow of sewage into the Sesmylspruit.”
Mashigo said raising awareness about the negative impact that foreign objects can have on the sewage system would assist in preventing sewage leaks.
“The current evidence at the city’s disposal is that we received lots of cloth-like material which is not supposed to be dumped into the sewer system.”
Residents initially reported the matter in June but only managed to lodge an official report at the end of July.
The manager of the estate told Rekord that guards had to be stationed at the pump to safeguard it from vandalism.
The estate also erected a fence to stop people from entering the area, as the estate had previous incidents where pipes and fittings from the pump station were stolen, as well as motors and electrical cables.
The estate first noticed that the pump was leaking in May.
The estate manager said that the two pumps no longer work after a straining system was clogged.
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