Durban — Bluff residents affected by sewage flowing into their properties from municipal manholes since July 25 have refuted claims by the city that the pump station nearby was operational.
The municipal pump station on Ernest Bower Road has been the focus of attention of residents since the servitude traversing many properties was blocked, resulting in municipal manholes overflowing onto 12 properties.
On Monday, eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said officials had checked on the pump, and it is operational.
“There were blockages on the line, which were resolved. We are not aware of the blockages being due to vandalism.”
On Friday, disgruntled residents met an official at the South Durban Basin Area Based Management Unit. A resident who wished to remain anonymous said the city was approaching the problem with a lack of co-ordination from all its departments involved. On Sunday, city staff had unblocked a drain in the pump station.
“You get the jetting team, honey sucker team, rod team of contractors and the municipal employees working in isolation. We had to go to city engineers and get a plan of the servitudes to give to some municipal staff who come on site. They need to access multiple properties and let us know in advance when they are coming. The only response we could get from the office was they were planning a Spring Day event.”
ActionSA councillor Ahmed Paruk attended to similar problems in the Mobeni Industrial area on Thursday. Paruk said they were not attended to timeously and almost forced businesses to shut their doors over concerns for their staff’s health.
“We had industrial businesses with more than 500 staff who cannot use the toilets. The stench is unbearable. Some problems had persisted for more than eight months,” he said.
A frustrated businessman who did not want his company or name in the paper because of reputational damage to the business wrote to city officials “hoping there are still good people somewhere in the municipality, with some desire to assist rate-payers of our city”.
His business has been in Mobeni for 41 years and employs 500 staff.
“Since 2019, we’ve had an ongoing battle with the sewerage pipes being blocked along South Coast Road, leading to sewerage regularly leaching out into the access road in front of our 400 meter-long road frontage,” he wrote.
“For the two years, we have resorted to jetting the sewerage lines bi-weekly to stop the sewerage from overflowing. But in the last few weeks, the down-the-line pipes in Jacobs have completely collapsed; now we have to ‘honey-suck’ the sewerage out.”
A superintendent from the municipality said their vehicles are broken, and the line is destroyed. The only way is for private rate-payers to ‘honey-suck’ out the full line at a cost of R80 000 per week. He said this situation is unacceptable, and the fact that it has existed since 2019, with zero improvements.
In the interim, he proposed (short of a rates revolt) that businesses deduct the cost of the “honey-suckers” from their monthly rates payment, or the municipality appoint a contractor to perform this service monthly.
Daily News