Several sewer-related blockages in Steadville, Tsakane, Acaciavale and KwaMthandi are being monitored by uThukela District Municipal Mayor, Cllr Siphiwe Mazibuko, and the service team.
The mayor has been visiting several areas to closely monitor and watch the team’s response time to the public’s service delivery concerns and complaints. “These visits also seek to improve service delivery in the district for the benefit of the communities,” said Mazibuko. Mazibuko said delivery of water and sanitation was one of the hardest battles to win, but that they wouldn’t rest until they found a permanent solution to ensure communities lived in a hygienic and healthy environment. The team visited places where there were persistent sewer blockages, sewer storage tanks and households where there were complaints of leakages and sewers overflowing inside the yards. “A large number of sewer blockage complaints the team attends are caused by foreign objects in the system. In some incidents foreign objects such as rocks, animal parts and clothing are found lodged into the sewer system,” said the Mayor.
The uThukela District urged communities to adopt healthy and hygienic ways of disposing waste. It said improper disposal of waste created environmental hazards and obstruction of drains. To reduce sewer blockages, residents are requested to refrain from doing the following: *flushing foreign material in the toilet *dumping waste in the manholes *blocking the sewer pipes. The mayor stressed that vandalism of sewer storage tanks caused major setbacks to service delivery as the municipality had limited resources to repair infrastructure.
