Sewage nightmare: business owners call for speedy action
Customers avoid area, as upgrade faces delays
our or five times a day, and several times at night, thousands of litres of raw sewage pours out of a cement drain in Bank Street, Port Alfred, running along the roadside gutter and down the stormwater drain.
From there, it travels about 50m, emptying straight into the Kowie River.
After showing their commitment to the town by investing tens of millions in the precinct and faithfully paying their rates and taxes, businesses on Bank and Wharf streets believe they deserve a better deal.
A major sewerage upgrade by Ndlambe Municipality is under way that is intended to resolve the problem completely.
But its completion date has been delayed several times, and local business owners say they can’t wait much longer.
Bank Street provides access to the service entrances to a bar and a popular restaurant.
It’s also the main entrance (as well as service entrance) for Keeton’s Funeral Services – which has been in the business for 40 years.
When Talk of the Town responded to a desperate call on Thursday January 11, owner Difford Keeton was beside himself with frustration.
Staff regularly have to clean up sewage overflow on the premises and around the entrance.
“Imagine you come at a difficult time like the death of a loved one, and you have to encounter this smell,” said Keeton.
“Even when all the spills are cleaned up, the smell from the drain permeates the air.
“It’s unacceptable,” he said. “I pay my rates every month – and this is what I get.”
Other business owners in the area are just as frustrated.
Ronald van Niekerk, who has owned and managed the Wharf Street Pub & Grill for just over two years, has, like other
Fbusiness owners in the area, done his best to mitigate the odour.
“It’s very frustrating,” he said. “I’ve invested a lot into fixing this place up – making it clean, neat and open – and people like it. But when they walk in and there’s been a sewage leak in the area, they walk straight out again. No-one wants to come to a place that smells like that.”
A popular restaurant in Wharf Street is better off in that no sewage finds its way onto the premises. But when there has been an overflow in the area, it smells.
“And then of course no-one wants to sit here,” said an acting manager, who asked not to be named.
“We’ve had holiday visitors from Joburg walk in, and walk straight out again because of the smell,” he said.
Blockages from foreign objects (sanitary towels, nappies and other objects) are a major part of the problem, say the local business owners, who have observed this themselves.
But it appears, too, that the nearby sewage pump station is not working.
The business owners showed TOTT the reservoir where sewage was once again pooling.
“Give it another hour and that will be backing up and coming out of that drain again,” said Keeton.
Keeton said he and other business owners had many times called and visited officials at the municipality.
“During the festive season they came and emptied out the pump station with honeysuckers regularly,” he said.
“But that seems to have stopped.”
TOTT hasn’t yet received a response from Ndlambe Municipality to questions regarding the major sewerage infrastructure upgrades under way in Port Alfred that are intended to end sewage blockages and overflow in the area. Their formal response will be published when TOTT receives it.
Meanwhile, TOTT understands that the contractor originally appointed to carry out the work was neither competent to do it, nor willing to take instruction or accept mentorship.
The process of appointing new service providers had delayed the intended completion date for the project (October 2023). An unofficial source said they believed the projected new completion date for the project was April 2024.
The NSRI’s Port Alfred volunteers recently conducted an unusual rescue operation.
NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon said on Tuesday December 19, NSRI Port Alfred launched an NSRI rescue craft to respond up the Kowie River where a sea turtle had been recovered from the water after being struck by a boat propeller.
“On NSRI arriving on the scene, the sea turtle was taken onboard the NSRI rescue craft and brought to the NSRI station 11 rescue base where a vet attended and initiated medical care,” Lambinon said.
“The sea turtle was stabilised and transported to Bay World in Gqeberha where it is recovering from its injuries.”