In yet another complaint of poor services from the Tshwane Council, also relating to sewage drains being blocked for days, residents of Emerald Street are furious over the Council’s lack of response.
One of the residents, Romila Naidoo told the Laudium Sun recently about a Council drain outside her yard that has been leaking for over a week at the manhole. Despite several attempts to contact the Council, Romila said that she had been unable to reach them, as the Council’s complaints logging system had been offline for days and thus unable to register the complaint. She added that due to the outside drain being blocked, the drain on her property subsequently also blocked and so did many other drains at nearby houses and other parts of the street, causing not only a disgusting stench in the area, but also resulting in the dirty water spewing faeces and other dirt from toilets, running in her yard and down on the streets. Romila added, “The sewage drain at the manhole outside our property first started to leak and the drain inside our property then got blocked and started leaking for days and days. I tried calling Councillor Naeem Patel and his office. He was not there, but someone else answered and I asked them to get the people from the Council to fix the blocked drain at the manhole, but the person said the Council reporting system was offline and they couldn’t register any new complaints. This issue has been ongoing for a week. When the manhole overflowed, it started leaking filthy sewage water from the toilets resulting in our drain inside also leaking this dirty water. The smell is unbearable and we can’t live like this. The Council team must come see for themselves and send someone to fix the problem permanently. If this issue doesn’t have a permanent solution, then it can’t be fixed. The problem seems to originate from the top of the street near White Blocks, and I think the drainage system must be replaced, or they need to come up with an alternative solution. We literally can’t live like this anymore. My family and I are being badly affected by the smell from the drain. Besides, it is a health hazard with all this faeces spilling onto our property and on the street. There is no way to walk out of my house and go outside without trapping on the dirty sewage water.”
Another resident of Emerald Street, Ebrahim Jaffer told the Laudium Sun, “The Council must fix all the drainage leakage problems. It’s not only affecting our health, but it’s also affecting our community greatly. The impression the Council is giving is that Laudium is very poor, making the area seem filthy. If you look around Laudium, there are so many manhole drains with toilet water flowing onto the streets, and it’s so filthy and dirty. The Councillor vowed to make this place better, but so far, nothing has been done.”
Dean Gungadoo also from Emerald Street, told the Laudium Sun, “The blocked manhole drain that’s been leaking for a week must be fixed urgently. The Council is very slow when attending to complaints in Laudium. They were supposed to come days before, but they are always full of excuses. They’re constantly late in responding, and I guess they don’t want to fix any problems in Laudium.” The Laudium Sun also raised the concerns of the residents of Emerald Street last week, with the relevant Council Department, and was assured that the matter was receiving their attention. The official confirmed that their system, whereby faults or complaints are logged on, was not functioning for a while but was up and running now.
*As per the sewage leak in Erasmia, the sewage leak on Emerald Street was finally fixed by the Council, but residents also still wanted the poor service delivery by Council to be exposed.
** Councillor Patel’s office confirmed that he was out of the country due to poor health.