The house of local resident living on 62 Juniper Road behind Atrium Berea has turned into a toilet as the sewer overflows from her neighbours’ sewer drains, putting the lives of her children at risk.
The devastated Tohira Rhoda’s house is now lying low and despite many attempts to have the matter resolved, the problem continues to escalate. “I have called eThekwini e-services a number of times to assist in resolving this issue which occurs every two weeks. It is even worse when it rains as the lines get blocked which results in the overflow. On 23 April, I made a call to the municipality and I was given a reference number and was told that a team will be sent out to clean and check the back sewer line, however the turn around time is 24 to 28 hours.”
Rhoda lives with her three children who cannot enjoy walking around the house without stepping on raw sewage and other things that come out from the drain. “Is it fair that I must risk my life and the life of my kids by having the whole neighbourhood increments on my property? The sewage is now coming out of the other side of the house. The drain also gets blocked as the overflow comes past to the front of my house onto my tiles. In this day and age of Covid-19 and e-coli and Lord knows whatever else, I must stand there use my water and clean up my neighbour’s toilet mess. For the amount of rates we pay this is totally unacceptable,” lamented Rhoda.
She said the problem has happened three times in two weeks. “When a team was sent to check, the plumber came and he was only there for less than a minute and was never to be seen again. He told me he will request for the line to be jetted. The problem did go away for a few days, then on 30 April the same thing happened again and the same procedure with the next plumber. I called the Sewage Department and again a reference number was given,” explained Rhoda. Even though she did not create the problem, Rhoda claims that her water bill continues to increase as she uses her water to clean the mess. She added that the matter was also reported to the ward councillor, Charmaine Clayton, with no success.
Speaking to The Springfield Weekly Gazette on Tuesday, 11 May, Clayton expressed disgust at the way the municipality has failed Rhoda. “We recently had a similar case on Randles Road where a resident was complaining of sewage which was flowing into her lounge. This happened over 18 days after it was reported to the municipality. On the 19th day, a plumber was sent out and he told the resident he was sorry for the delay and that he had to hire a jetting machine as the municipality does not have any jetting machines,” said Clayton. Clayton claimed that the municipality’s Water Department has no tools on its shelves. “Where are all the tools and jetting machines which were bought in the last financial year?” asked Clayton. EThekwini Municipality was contacted for comment, however, at the time of going to press the spokesperson had not responded.
