Sol’s costly quick fixes stink
COLLAPSED sewerage lines, particularly in Roodepan, continue to plague the Sol Plaatje Municipality and while tens of thousands of rand are spent on quick fixes, equipment failure and a lack of a permanent solution continues to see raw sewage flowing in the streets and the yards of many residents.
A report on deviations, included in last week’s Sol Plaatje council meeting, highlighted the fact that R86 480 was spent to hire a private company to dig a trench in Seeduif Street “because Sol Plaatje does not have sufficient personnel who can dig trenches and lay pipelines”.
As a result a contractor was appointed on an emergency basis because of continued sewage spilling into the area.
It was pointed out in the motivation that for some time already the Sol Plaatje Municipality had experienced numerous problems with sewearge blockages in the Seeduif Street area, causing the sewerage network to overflow, resulting in huge raw sewage spillages.
The raw sewage was impacting on the Pescodia schools and causing a health risk for the community.
“The sewerage network around Seeduif Street had to be attended to numerous times a week with little relief for the residents in the area. Not only did it increase over time but caused public outcry against the unhealthy situation.”
It was pointed out that the continued sewage spillage was caused by a broken sewerage line in Seeduif Street that needed urgent attention.
“In order to bring some temporary relief it was decided to install a pump in Seeduif Street and for this to be done a trench was required. As Sol Plaatje does not have sufficient personnel who can dig trenches and lay pipelines, it was necessary to appointed a contractor on an emergency basis.”
The cost of appointing the contractor was R86 480.
However, less than a month later, raw sewage is again flooding streets and homes in the area, particularly in Seeduif Street.
Sewerage blockages and stoppages are a common and a longterm problem in the greatest part of Roodepan and the municipality has invested large amounts of money in attempts to upgrade the infrastructure and effect repairs.
In at least three streets, namely Spreeu, Seeduif and Beethoven, sections of the sewerage pipeline has collapsed, believed to be due to unstable soil conditions.
Investigations have revealed that the only solution would be to re-design the sewerage main and move the mid-blocks to the street reserves. However, no funding has been allocated from the budget for the work and the problem is not expected to be resolved in the foreseeable future.
The municipality also does not have spare personnel to conduct the preventative maintenance because all the teams are committed to reactionary works.
As a temporary relief measure, the municipality pumps directly from one manhole to another, bypassing the collapsed section.
In Seeduif Street, where thick pools of grey, foul-smelling sewage are once again building up in residents’ yards, municipal spokesperson Sello Matsie explained that the mid-block had collapsed in Seeduif Street and as a result sewage was pushing back, creating the spillage.
“A temporary pump was installed to prevent the flooding of the houses by pumping sewage from one manhole to another. However, due to foreign materials being flushed into the system, the pump gets blocked and has to be taken out, cleaned and put back.”
Matsie added that as a temporary solution, this intervention was effective but the community should stop flushing foreign matter into the sewerage system.
“A long-term solution, which involves appointing a contractor to lay a new shallow pipe in Seeduif Street, away from houses (not mid-block), and bypassing the collapsed portion, is under way. The intention is to deviate from normal procurement procedures due to the urgency of the situation.”