Maverick Citizen: Eastern Cape: Graaff-Reinet municipality turns nose up at sewage complaints By Estelle Ellis
The Beyers Naude Municipality this week blamed the drought for persistent sewage leaks in Graaff-Reinet, saying that the lower water flow in pipes is causing major problems – but a damning report in 2017 warned the municipality back then that urgent repairs were required as investigators found channels dug to direct raw sewage straight into the Sundays River.
In 2017, after a complaint was filed by residents over the ongoing sewage spills against the Beyers Naude Local Municipality, an expert appointed by the, Sonwabile Menyelwa, found that the town’s ageing sewage system had “failed to cope” with population growth and that in one case channels were dug so that sewage from overflowing manholes flowed directly into the Sundays River.
Menyelwa added in his report that spillages were not properly cleaned and would only be covered with lime after they were fixed.He wrote in his report that this investigation was necessitated after the Beyers Naude Municipality would not return calls from the Department of Water and Sanitation about the situation.A visit was therefore paid to Graaff-Reinet to satisfy the department on the real case,” he said.
She said that since then the municipality had provided several reasons for the constant sewage spills, including that pumps were vandalised, load-shedding, blocked pipes, payment problems of contractors, vandalised generators and the ongoing drought.
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