It is one thing to suspect the sewage network is up to maggots, but to be confronted yet again with raw sewage flowing freely into the Vaal River, turns the stomach.
Mr Pheello Mlotshwa, a community worker from Sakhile, recounted the saga of the defunct pump station at TLC.
During an investigation on Wednesday, November 10, the bumpy, potholed, dirt road towards the station was reached.
According to Mr Mlotshwa, no Lekwa-employees are working there anymore.
“Trucks dump sewage daily at the pumps station while the pumps are not running,” he said.
“It reaches a manhole from where it pushes upwards towards the nearby houses.”
He added that the Lekwa Municipality appointed a contractor responsible for installing new pipes.
“The contractor told me on October 27 that everything was ready to be handed over to the municipality.”
According to Mr Mhlotswa, he went to check a week later and discovered sewage was still spilling from the station.
He also said the workers were only on site on November 4 and November 5 and there was not a single Lekwa-worker on site on Monday, November 8.
When he questioned the workers at the pump station in Rooikoppen about their absence at TLC, they allegedly told him that their manager instructed them to go and work somewhere else.
Mr Mhlotswa called their manager on Tuesday, November 9 and was told the contractor did not officially hand over the project.
According to him, the pump station was vandalised in the past, but repaired.
The Standerton Advertiser contacted the communications manager of Lekwa, Ms Thobeka Mtshiselwa, via WhatsApp, on November 10.
Enquiries were made to a) whether there has been a delay in the official handing over of the pump station at TLC; b) reason/s for this delay; c) why trucks still dump raw sewage at TLC and d) whether a policy for protection of environmental resources has yet been drafted.
Readers will be updated once comment is received.
