Three years after a hole was dug by municipal employees in Maria Street, Kamma Park, to fix a sewage leak, things have escalated to such an extent that residents have sewage coming from their toilets and flowing through their bathrooms at any given time.
To make matters worse, some residents have even been trapped inside their properties for as long as four days due to massive trenches in their yards to try to fix the problem, but to no avail.
PE Express previously reported about the sewage leak and in August 2020, only a trench approximately five metres deep had been dug for repairs to be done. The boundary walls of two homes had also been removed in order to complete the job.
Meanwhile, one of the affected residents, Yolandi Rawlinson, explained that things had just become worse over the past few years.
She acknowledged that work had been done but every time it seemed as though the problem was going to be fixed, another problem would arise and more holes several metres deep would be dug inside her yard, both at her front door and also on both sides of the house.
“Since the article in PE Express in August 2020, they were going to start building our boundary wall but the area began to sink again and another sinkhole formed further down the road. It was halted as it was no use building a wall when the problem was still there.
“Nothing happened, apart from the sewage being pumped out of the manhole every day until we received a letter from JK Structures on 15 October 2020, to say that they have been contracted by the municipality to do CCTV inspections and cleaning of sewer pipes as well as pipe repairs,” Rawlinson explained.
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A site meeting eventually took place on February 19, 2021. According to the minutes of the meeting, that PE Express has seen, JK Structures confirmed that once the dewatering process commenced on March 1, 2021, the construction would take only four weeks to complete. The approximate completion date of the sewer repair was therefore March 29 last year.
“The job only started around March 12 last year and they finished this on March 19. They closed everything but had not connected our sewerage to the main line and had to then dig up inside our driveway to connect us. We could not leave our yard for about two days.
“After this was completed, everything came to a standstill again and another site meeting was arranged for April 1 last year,” Rawlinson said.
According to these minutes, the job was then in its last phase of construction.
The minutes also stated that the contractor’s CCTV camera, which is needed to record the condition of the sewer pipe, was in for repairs at that time.
Residents were also assured that all remedial work induced by the construction would be attended to once the construction was complete.
“During this time another sinkhole by the ‘repaired manhole’ developed. Repair work only started around April 29, 2021. They dug another huge hole and also had to dig on the other side near my gate. After many problems, even getting NMBM Health and Safety involved, this was finally completed at the end of May 2021.”
According to emails sent to Rawlinson and Ward 8 councillor, Gustav Rautenbach, by municipal officials in July last year, many other problems arose, resulting in the project coming to a halt again. These included some of the builders contracting COVID-19 and payment issues between the municipality and JK Structures.
Rawlinson said that when work eventually commenced again, it spread to the other side of the street and they had found that there were still problems, leading to repairs being done up until December 2021, when they were stuck inside their yards for four days.
“Since then nothing has happened but still they say that there is something wrong and that sand is still coming into the line. They keep sucking the pipes clean and during this sucking there are times that our toilets in our house overflow and the stench is horrible.
“I feel utterly frustrated and very unsafe without a boundary wall. They have put up a fence (only after we requested) but this does not help and our security is null and void.”
Rautenbach added that it is unacceptable that this problem has been going on for three years.
“They keep saying that it has been fixed but then another problem arises. The homeowners have a right to the use of their properties as they are taxpayers but now that right is being taken away.
“It is totally unacceptable and unfair. The residents’ safety has also been put at risk,” he said.
According to an e-mail sent by a municipal official on February 11, the NMBM and contractors are currently investigating less intrusive means to solve the recurring issue of sand infiltrating the sewer line. A site meeting where senior management would be requested to join, would also be arranged soon.
Rautenbach said that he would be following up on this.
