Durban — The sewage flowing into a river in Newlands East is one of many sewage issues the DA in KwaZulu-Natal will highlight this week during its last leg of oversight inspections at sewage leak hotspots across the eThekwini Municipality.
Two weeks ago the Daily News reported on a disgruntled Newlands East building contractor who labelled officials in eThekwini ‘incompetent’ because they have not been able to fix a “simple” broken sewer pipe next to Ferndale Primary School since April.
During the floods, the river along Galjoen Road flowed over a culvert, damaging an embankment and exposing an underground sewer pipeline. Raw sewage has been flowing into the river since then, with the unbearable stench a concern for schoolchildren and residents.
On Monday, DA KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Dean Macpherson said although it has been brought to the attention of the eThekwini Municipality, nothing has been done to address the sewage crisis in the municipality that is due to years of infrastructure negligence that has now been exacerbated by the floods.
He had visited the broken sewer pipe in Newlands East where sewage is flowing into the Umgeni river all the way to the ocean, resulting in beaches being closed.
He said residents were bearing the brunt of it, and instead of fixing this problem, the mayor was more concerned about his singing and dancing career.
In a video, Macpherson described the video of the sewage as horrific.
“This has been brought to the attention of the municipality since the floods in April and nothing has been done about it. There’s a school just to my left, where young children are forced to smell this horrific smell. Residents are being inundated and taken over by mosquitoes, and they cannot sleep at night due to the toxic smell that's coming out of this river.
“Instead of fixing this problem, we have a mayor who is more concerned about his dancing and singing career than actually sorting this crisis out, and it really is a crisis now.
“The municipality has been warned about this, and the only response to residents to date is that they will fix it sometime, quote-unquote, how much… longer do they have to wait?” Macpherson asked.
“The DA is going to continue to fight for residents. We're going to fight to get this mess sorted out to get our rivers cleaned up and to get our beaches open again, as soon as possible,” he said.
Even though it has been brought to the attention of the eThekwini municipality nothing has been done to address the sewage crisis in the municipality that is due to years of infrastructure negligence that has now been exacerbated by the #KZNFloods.@DeanMacpherson pic.twitter.com/cuHuUeFLpu
— DA KZN (@DA_KZN) September 19, 2022
From Wednesday to Thursday, Macpherson will lead the DA’s last leg of oversight inspections at sewage leak hotspots across the municipality.
He will be joined by DA eThekwini constituency leadership and councillors. This as communities continue to bear the brunt of the municipality’s failure to procure and maintain sewerage infrastructure.
The DA said that for a month, it has been conducting inspections across the municipality. Following the inspection, the DA will use the information to put forward proposals and possible legal action against eThekwini management.
Details of the visits on Wednesday, September 21, 2022, are:
Central Durban
Time: 10am
Address: Outside King Edward Hospital (Sydney Rd, Umbilo, Durban, 4013)
Time: 11am
Address: Bluff National Golf course (Van Riebeeckpark, Bluff, 4052)
Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu
Time: 2.30pm
Address: Ntuzuma D – Street 121626
Daily News