Pretoria - For at least five years the life of a Winterveld resident, Lindiwe Nkosi, has been a living hell due to the stench of sewage overflowing from a manhole located inside her yard.
The unhealthy environment, which was always littered with faeces and waste water, forced Nkosi to move her two children to her grandparents’ home.
One of her children is asthmatic and “couldn’t stand the acute smell from the manhole because of her condition,” she said.
She said stagnant water was a breeding ground for mosquitoes, biting her while sleeping at night.
“I can’t open the door and windows anymore because of this bad smell,” she said.
Her situation was discovered yesterday during an oversight visit by members of a portfolio committee on Co-operative Governance and Human Settlements.
Nkosi said what pained her even more was that she was exposed to a sewage smell and despite that she didn’t have a flushing toilet at home.
It was believed that the problem started when residents from the RDP houses nearby connected themselves to a sewerage system after the contractor failed to do so.
“Initially the sewerage system would block and the municipality would come and unblock it but as time went by the problem worsened as it could not be easily unblocked,” Nkosi said.
Yesterday, waste water could be seen running over the manhole and spilling on to her yard.
The waste water also affected her neighbours, who also had to endure the foul smell.
Last month, a wall in one of the houses collapsed because it was exposed to constant waste water spillage running through many household.
Numerous efforts by the locals to raise the problem with a ward 9 councillor had so far failed to yield a permanent solution.
One of them, Sibongile Ntombela, told members of the portfolio committee that the municipality appeared to be at wit’s end when it came to fixing the sewerage system.
“The problem is long standing. In December our councillor organised the municipality to come and assist and at least five trucks were dispatched to remove the sewage, but they could not cope with the situation,” Ntombela said.
She also lamented the fact that children were unable to play in the streets because of the spillage.
Committee chairperson, Kedibone Diale, said she was assured that a service provider would be appointed to redirect the sewage from the houses by November 14.
It was said that an amount of R400 million would be required to bring about a long-lasting solution.
Diale told Ntomela that when she returns in November there would be progress in terms of fixing the problem.
Twice a week there would be trucks to remove sewage from the manholes and the streets.
Ntombela, however, took what Diale said with a pinch of salt, saying: “Let me tell you one thing. People from the government like telling us lies. All they know is to come to us during the elections to ask us to vote for them.”
The committee also visited unfinished housing projects in Winterveld, Mabopane, Ga-Rankuwa and Soshanguve.
In Winterveld there was construction of 232 RDP houses under way as part of the township renewal project. It was envisaged that the houses would be completed in 24 months.
While Diale expressed satisfaction with the project, she said that the committee had found that there were housing challenges when it assumed office in 2019.
In Soshanguve's Extension 7, a project to build 41 houses was unfortunately abandoned and some beneficiaries had to complete those houses themselves.
Diale said some of the houses finished by the beneficiaries were not compliant with the safety standard because of the shoddy work.
She said there were many unfinished houses across the province, partly attributed to contractual problems and unscrupulous contractors.
"What we can say to community members is that they must make sure that the service providers do quality work. They must be the ears and eyes of the government and make sure that no one leaves the work unfinished," she said.
Pretoria News