Top cop trapped at home by BCM sewage spill
An East London woman is stuck in her home with raw sewage floating in her yard.
She cannot open doors and windows in her Amalinda home.
When Nopasika Velaphi bought her house in 2010, she never imagined she would be battling human excrement.
It comes from a sewage pipe inside her yard.
“It’s worse because it [sewage] is not only from my house but from most parts of this area,” a frustrated Velaphi said.
She said the sewage would leak whenever it rained, and she would call the Buffalo City Metro (BCM) and it would be “pumped out”.
Velaphi, a lieutenant-colonel stationed at the Mdantsane police station, said she had been making calls to the municipality since January after the sewage filled her yard again.
She claimed the ordeal escalated when shacks were built in an informal settlement near her home.
“I cannot open windows and doors because of the stench. It’s unbearable and it’s a danger to me and my children,” Velaphi said.
“This got worse after the people started to build shacks in Nkandla [informal settlement] near where I live. It gets fixed one day and starts again soon after.
“I have asked the municipality people to remove the pipes because I can’t live like this. But I was told they can only pump the sewage out and it would cost a lot to remove them. Why do I have to suffer because the municipality is failing to deal with this?”
Velaphi said she spent Christmas day in 2018 with her two children in a yard covered with sewage dotted with “pads” and “used condoms”.
“This is affecting our livelihood. I bought the house because it is spacious, but I didn’t know I would encounter such problems.
“Even my neighbours can smell the sewage from a distance. Two other neighbours also have this sewage problem. The municipality has failed to address this, but now why must it be our problem?
The mother of two said she even consulted a private plumber, but was told only the municipality could fix it.
Describing herself as a ratepayer, she felt unhappy with the municipality’s “I don’t care” attitude.
“I want my well-being back and I want this to be fixed. I don’t deserve this.
“In this country people toyitoyi when they want their problems to be fixed. I can’t do that. I know the law. The municipality can easily fix this, but they are taking me for granted.”
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya had not responded to a Dispatch query at the time of writing.
I was told they can only pump the sewage out and it would cost a lot to remove them