Raw sewerage in the streets again

The Democratic Alliance has laid a complaint against the municipality with the environmental management inspectors (the Green Scorpions). While the municipality promised to take urgent steps, Tuesday morning saw sewage pumped into the park in Sandsteen street.
A heavy smell permeated the area and a stream of raw sewage lead down into the street. “This is a health concern for our town and it does not seem to be getting resolved,” said a concerned citizen.
Lephalale Municipality spokesperson, Valerie Cilliers, spoke to eNCA.com last week and was quoted as saying: “the municipality regrets the decision taken under pressure to pump sewage into a nearby field and will in future refrain from doing so.”
The municipality also promised to deploy a ‘honey sucker’ truck and when queried they confirmed that the driver completed his training on Tuesday and that the truck was operational from Wednesday.
It is understood that the municipality is struggling to maintain various broken pumps. In order to fix the pumps they need to get rid of the sewage – as the truck has not been operational, the municipality took a decision to pump the sewage out into fields.
DA ward councillor Sybil Nieuwoudt says that while she understands that the sewage must first be removed before the maintenance crew can get to the pumps, the honey sucker truck in question has not been in use for some time.
Northern News has reported on the pressures the influx of residents has had on the town’s sewage system. In 2012, the then municipal manager Bob Naidoo said that R5-million was spent on upgrading the pump stations. He also said, in January 2014, that plans were in place to upgrade and expand the sewage system at the Paarl plant.