BETHAL – Sewage spillages have been a problem in Bethal for the past few months and DA Councillor, Ms Marietjie Fourie, reported these problems to different departments at the Govan Mbeki Municipality as well as the provincial office of the DA.
A health inspector visited some of the sites where there are sewage spillages and AfriForum informed Ms Fourie that they also wants to get involved.
According to Ms Fourie, the municipality does not have a honeysucker to pump the sewage pipes and she requested them to rent one, but it was rejected by the municipal manager because of a lack of money.
Bethal residents have also been without water for a few weeks and Mr Benzi Soko, Chief of Staff at Govan Mbeki Municipality, gave feedback on the water and sewage issues in Bethal.
He said: “Bethal residents have been experiencing water shortages due to low pressures that were experienced in Extension 5 and the town area. It was caused by the valves that were not opened during the repairing of the water leaks.
“The water pressure have improved in Extension 5.”
He said the sewer blockages in region 1 (Bethal and eMzinoni) could be caused because of foreign and unwanted particles being disposed in municipal sewer networks.
“Few companies have been identified as ones that discharge unwanted particles in municipal sewer networks, which resulted in blockages and some of these companies have been served with notices to ensure that they do not discharge unwanted particles in our system.
“However, internal sewer teams attend to these problems as and when they are experienced.
“We have further prepared a pressure unit truck to help the teams in the clearing of stubborn blockages.”
