Florentia residents at wits’ end over sewer woes
A Florentia resident says she is deeply concerned about the health of her children and her puppy due to the sporadic flooding of sewage.
After years of enduring an unbearable stench and having their yards sporadically flooded with sewage, Florentia residents call on the council to come to the party.
A frustrated Lisa Pullen, who has lived in her Florentia home for years, stated that raw sewage has been pumping into her yard as well as her neighbour’s from their drains.
For as long as they can remember, they have been plagued by the aftermath of toilet paper and excretion. Not only does this cause an unbearable stench, but it is also a health hazard.
According to Pullen, this has been happening every year since they bought their property back in 2018.
“When this happened the first time, I was so anxious. I didn’t allow my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter to play in the backyard for almost a year. We just recently got a pet dog and I’m worried about him getting sick as well as my children. The property was purchased in January 2018,” she said.
She demanded the City of Ekurhuleni take accountability and implement a long-term solution.
Her neighbour, André van Bavel, said the previous owners and the ones before that also had the same problem.
“We once had guys from Ekurhuleni and they said the problem lies with the roots on the tree that have grown to the sewage system and have damaged the pipes. So it’s not at the manhole, it’s about three metres down from the manhole. Everything that comes from upstream will start clogging up where the roots are and then it starts overfilling,” explained van Bavel.
He also suggested that the city should remove the tree closer to the sewer line and repair the pipe.
“The recent blockage was opened by our team after we received the complaint. The cause of the blockage was rags in the system and not a system problem. Our turnaround is 48 hours,” said Zweli Dlamini, the city’s spokesperson.
