Residents of the Newcastle Railway Houses are up in arms after having to live with constant horrible odours because of the Ayliff Street Sewage Pump Station not functioning properly.
Sthembiso Mbongwe is one such resident who has been living like this and said he has even gotten sick as a result. “Living like this is inhuman. There is human waste in our yards and people here are even getting sick. This has been an ongoing problem for about three years, but now it’s at its worst. We have reported this to the municipality on many occasions but nothing has been done. We have our reference number and each time we call, they just say that someone will come out to see. I wonder how municipal officials would feel if they had to live like this,” said Mbongwe.
Gardens are laden with sewage and human excrement to the point where there is no way for one to enter or exit a home without having to put up a make shift pathway of rocks. The Newcastle Express visited the area and the stench, which was nothing short of putrid, made it difficult to breathe. The sewage is so bad that it covers at least four gardens of homes in the area and the stench is carried to neighbouring areas. Another resident, who declined to be named, said that her child became sick last week. “My three-year-old had a runny tummy and fever and it’s because of all the germs in this area. It’s also carried by flies as the smell attracts swarms of them. They enter our homes, sit on our food and also on us. It’s so bad that we cannot open our doors and windows let alone eat with the stench of human waste.
This is no way for people to live. The municipality has done nothing, even after complaining numerous times. We have a reference number but still, nobody is willing to help. I would like for our mayor to also visit the site and tell us if he can live like this,” she said. According to Science Direct, sewage contains a wide diversity and concentration of bacteria that originate from soil and sanitary waste. One millilitre of sewage typically contains between 100 000 and one million micro-organisms. While most of these organisms, such as various types of bacteria, play a pivotal role in the decomposition of waste and are considered an integral component of organic matter, some are pathogenic or disease causing and pose a threat to public health. Among the various types of bacteria found in sewage, the most common types are faecal coliforms which originate in human discharges. Specific forms of parasitic bacteria manufacture toxins which cause diseases in the host organism. The Newcastle Municiplaity was contacted for feedback on this issue but no comment was received before the time of going to print.
