REPAIRS to the sinkhole on Lowestoft Avenue caused by a burst sewer pipe in Montclair might happen some time soon. Originally scheduled for Wednesday, 19 January, the heavy rains experienced in the past few days did not make conditions conducive for workers to carry out their duties.
This is according to ward 64 councillor, Gavin Hegter, who has been championing repairs on the road just off Roland Chapman Drive for well over two months. He said that the municipality has been inundated with backlogs from all over the city, and the order for a contractor to start the repair process has been eventually signed and they were to start work on Wednesday, 26 February. Hegter said the pipe bursts from time to time due pressure and ageing infrastructure.
“The issue is that the mainline running along Roland Chapman Drive is probably 70 years old. The area has since expanded with the addition of a block of flats and renovations on some properties, however, the infrastructure has not. Residents have paved their entire properties and put the stormwater into the sewer lines, both these practices are illegal,” said Hegter.
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He said that the rest of the city was experiencing similar problems as the city’s budget tightens. The site manager at Engen garage, situated at the corner of Lowestoft Avenue and Roland Chapman Drive, and her staff have had to deal with sewage and extremely bad smells since December.
“I’ve been messaging the municipality since December. When I did so again in January, they told me that they have no funding to sort out the sewage. Our petrol attendants are getting sick. They deal with this the whole day and customers don’t want to come in because of the smell. A few of our attendants have had to go on sick leave because they are breathing all of this in, it’s really bad,” she said.
Hegter attested to the fact that the city had no money.
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“This time it is even worse because eThekwini has no resources to repair the over 2 000 backlogs it has. Heavy rains also pose a threat to the sewer line problems on Roland Chapman Drive. I raised the issue with the city, the head of water and sanitation and then the city manager in early January. Eighty per cent of repair work done in the city was outsourced to contractors and because there is no money to pay them, it is now done by in-house personnel who are under staffed. It boils down to the failure of the city to manage its departments and budgets properly.”
eThekwini Municipality had not responded at the time of going to press.
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