Heat and flies intensify sewage woes for residents
Ward 68 councillor, Aubrey Snyman, said that he was disappointed at the way the matter was being handled by the municipality.
FOR four days residents on Major Calvert Street in Wentworth have had to put up with the stench of a burst sewer. According to the residents, the problem began on Sunday, 12 January, the same day that the problem was reported. To escalate matters, stormwater drains are completely blocked, leaving an influx of wastewater and faeces to float about on the road.
Resident Sandra Campbell said municipal workers arrived on Monday but couldn’t finish off because it rained and they left.
“We all thought they’d come back on Tuesday morning to complete the work but they didn’t. I think I made over 100 calls to them, phoning from morning until night every day and every time I’d get through, they say they’d logged my complaint onto the system. On Wednesday (15 January) I phoned from 1.15pm to 2.05pm, I was told that there’s a queue as the lines are very busy,” she explained.
Campbell said that the situation became dire in the mix of the heat and cars passing by splashing the waste into their yards, they took it upon themselves, as residents, to blockade the road.
Another resident, Joyce Bernon, said phoning the call centre was a waste of their resources as help was promised but never delivered.
“Phoning the call centre is a drag because you don’t get through and airtime gets wasted. I phoned on Wednesday and a lady told me that she’d definitely get the relevant people to come out because I said to her that the faeces are going into the people’s yards and it is so hot, the stink is really unbearable,” Bernon said.
Ward 68 councillor, Aubrey Snyman, said that he was disappointed at the way the matter was being handled by the municipality. He said that while he understood that council had backlog with service delivery, matters of water and sanitation should be prioritised.
“They came out on Thursday, 16 January to attend to the issue. I understand that the municipality is inundated with the work because there are only four jetting machines but the problem is that service delivery is very poor. Then there are flies, the smell, the heat, it is very irritating and to add to it, they don’t even come with the proper equipment to do the job,” he said.
“Residents need to play their part in ensuring that they only flush down toilet paper. You’d be surprised to find out what gets flushed down the toilet. But to be made to wait this long is discouraging, I’m not happy at all. It’s frustrating because I get so many complaints and there’s only so much I can do,” added Snyman.
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