bout two weeks ago, CoJ urban inspector, Grace Mopeli and Ward 71 administrator, Mosala Bonokwane embarked on a walk through Princess informal settlement to familiarise themselves with the water and sewerage issues.
According to ward councillor René Benjamin, they found that Ward 85 had a large number of issues, and Ward 71 had a leak.
“The section of the Albertina Sisulu Road surface that is covered by water constantly is within Ward 85. Motorists from all areas use the road therefore we took it upon ourselves to escalate the matter,” said René, who was the only ward councillor in attendance.
On Wednesday, September 29 various entities met with the urban inspectors from Wards 71, 85 and 127 on the soccer field in Princess, all of whom had identified issues that needed attending to. An accelerated service delivery programme was subsequently decided on to cover these three wards.
Present on this day were representatives from City Power, Joburg Water, City Parks and Zoo, Social Development, Environmental Affairs, City Power Street Lights, JMPD, and Joburg Roads Agency.
“The biggest issue that was raised by the Ward 71 team was the leakage on Albertina Sisulu Road. This has been a continuous challenge for Joburg Water to keep up with – especially the sewage leaks. It was clear that the refuse such as diapers, plastics and other items dumped into the sewer line were causing these constant blockages,” René said.
City Parks also sent out a team prior to the meeting to clear out some illegal garbage dumps on Progress Road and surrounding areas.
Even though Albertina Sisulu Road’s sewage and water leaks remain a priority for Joburg Water, they weren’t able to attend to the matter due to heavy rains.
“Unfortunately the road cannot be attended to while the surface is wet. Repairing the road that has been damaged by continued leakages is still a priority. They also did assessments of other areas and the repairs needed. Their street marking team went into the ward and attended to some of the faded road markings on Progress and other roads. City Power, which is aware of the illegal connections were tasked with looking into the issues around this,” René explained.
JMPD were tasked with investigating a number of concerns raised by residents with regard to illegal activities. They were asked to assist with traffic control when that section of Albertina Sisulu Road would be closed while Joburg Water attended to the issues.
Members of the teams, led by their urban inspector, were dispatched to Ward 127 to address some of their issues. The operation ran from Wednesday, September 29 to Friday, October 1 but was hampered by a turn in the weather.
