City’s stormwater system not up to standard

POLOKWANE  There seems to be more blocked municipal stormwater systems in areas of the city where street hawkers and vagrants operate, than anywhere else in Polokwane.

This was mentioned to Polokwane Observer by the recently appointed member of the mayoral council (MMC) for stormwater, Desmond Moloto who leads the pack in the ongoing cleaning of such systems across the five Polokwane municipal clusters since December, with the CBD proving to be a challenge.

“We have found a lot of plastic material and discarded food in the system, which we assume are from street hawkers who do not make use of the municipality’s garbage collection methods. Vagrants also keep their belongings in stormwater pipes. Blankets and clothing get lost in the pipes which leads to blockages and a terrible stench in the long run,” he remarked.

The city’s water drainage system proved not to be up to the task at the peak of last year February’s rainy season when flash floods damaged huge parts of the CBD, causing outrage from shopkeepers at the Indian Centre, and households in Nirvana.

A month later, Mayor John Mpe announced the urgent allocation of an unstipulated portion of R6m, additionally given to maintain the storm water drainage system, some of which is a portion of the roads maintenance funds.

Downtown streets including Bok Street, Genl Joubert, Devenish and Church among others are worst affected and increasingly overpopulated by hawkers. Upon a visit by Polokwane Observer, an open-air butchery was witnessed in Excelsior Street where meat is cut and sold outside the regulations of any health or other city regulations.

But many hawkers maintain they are not the main contributors to blocked stormwater drainage systems.

According to Master Kortese, who represent them, EPWP workers sweep dirt into the drains at night.

“We make an effort to dispose of things in refuse bags, as the municipality does not supply us with enough bins,” he argued. The cleaners are supposed to dispose of the refuse bags, he said.

In the meantime, the work will continue across the entire municipal area, while every Friday all designated employees under this business unit are expected to be improving the stormwater system somewhere in time for the rainy season, Moloto added.

He appealed to all citizens to make use of provided municipal bins to avoid blocked drainage systems and said plans to impose laws relating to street sleeping in the city were afoot.