Durban — Shoppers at Umlazi’s Mega City mall, as well as residents of the Glebelands and Tehuis hostels, have lashed out at the eThekwini Municipality for failing to fix a damaged pipe which has been leaking sewage into Umlazi River since last year.
The pipeline, which runs along Griffiths Mxenge Highway (the M30), carries sewage from the township via the mall to a purification plant in Isipingo. It has been leaking profusely since early December.
According to DA councillor for ward 74 Sthembiso Ngema, the municipality’s sanitation department had been informed about the problem but had done nothing to resolve it.
He had sent pictures to the relevant officials on December 8 and was astonished to find out that as yet the problem had not yet been solved.
He was not surprised that some beaches had been closed owing to E coli because the spill was flowing into the Umlazi River, and then straight to Cuttings Beach near Merebank.
The pipe is also right in front of a construction site where eThekwini Municipality is rebuilding a road bridge that collapsed in April 2021 during the floods.
Patrons at one of Mega City mall’s restaurants told the Daily News that the smell was nauseating and they could not enjoy their meal.
A taxi rank marshal at Glebelands hostel said passengers had been complaining about the smell coming from the broken pipe.
“It is terrible to see raw sewage every day, and many of us are sick because of the polluted air which is caused by the smell. What can we do about it? Our government seems not to care about our health,” he said.
Communities in the south of the city appeared to have been the worst affected by the persisting sewage problem.
The paper also received a complaint from residents of Lotus Park in Isipingo, who said they had been living with a burst sewage pipe since July last year.
One of the residents, who also asked not to be named, shared pictures of her garden, where sewage was gushing from a manhole. She said she had been reporting the problem since July, but nothing had been done, adding that municipality workers came and had a look, but then left without doing anything. She said excrement was flowing into Mbokodweni River, and from there to Dakota Beach.
“I have many reference numbers to prove that I have been reporting.
“We feel neglected by the municipality, and we really no longer know what to do to draw the attention of the authorities to our plight,” said the resident.
Heinz de Boer, who is the DA’s member of the provincial legislature’s economic development, tourism and environmental affairs department portfolio committee, said it had been three to four months since MEC Sboniso Duma had promised to set up a task team together with eThekwini Municipality to deal with the city’s 100 sewage leaks, but he had not seen that anything had been achieved.
He said this state of affairs had badly affected tourism in the city and was causing great concern about the environment, since rivers were being destroyed. He said the current situation was a sad indictment of the department and eThekwini Municipality.
The municipality’s spokesperson, Msawakhe Mayisela, said the City was attending to all reported sewage leaks, and urged the public to desist from throwing foreign objects into the system.
Malusi Mchunu, the spokesperson for the provincial legislature’s economic development, tourism and environmental affairs portfolio committee, had not responded to questions by the time of publishing.
Daily News