The latest sewage spill in a Summer Greens park is receiving urgent attention, says the City.
Summer Greens residents are upset that they have to make a detour to avoid going through the Emerald Way Park, the largest and busiest of the community’s four parks.
There have been several sewage spills at the park in recent years, and parents complain that their children can’t play there.
“I have two young children who have a lot of energy to burn and the park is a really good way of doing that. But I’ve forbidden my children from going there. I don’t want them getting sick, and I would suggest parents complain about this. I have sent in many complaints over the years,“ said resident Kim Johnson.
Another parent, Amanda Mahlangu, said that it was reckless to have a park near a pump station.
“What did they think was going to happen?“ she said. ”Any issues with the station we knew would affect the park. Initially, I’ll admit that I was excited when they were talking about building the pump station because we have many sewer spill problems here. I became apprehensive when I learned it would be built near the park where my children and many other people’s kids play. Now our concerns have been made valid.“
Acting mayoral committee member for water and sanitation Siseko Mbandezi said the sewage spill in the park had happened after load shedding had knocked out the nearby pump station.
However, he added that misuse of the sewer system was to blame for most of the sewage spills in Summer Greens and elsewhere in the city.
“Our teams regularly have to remove builders’ rubble, nappies and tyres, along with general litter, from the system when clearing blockages. These blockages are exacerbated by the disposal of cooking fats into the system, which hardens as it cools and acts like glue for the other materials in the line. It is unfortunately the impact of adverse human behaviour – theft and vandalism, which lead to the dumping of foreign objects into the sewer reticulation system, that causes blockages of the sewer network and sewer pump stations.”
But resident Tamzin Swanepoel said that if all the residents were doing as the City claimed then there wouldn’t be a sewer system to speak of.
“It’s clear that not all residents misuse the drains, toilets, etc. The City is just frustrated that they can’t find a way to remedy this issue. No use blaming people. We have put our trust in the City to solve this issue. This morning (Monday April 3), I saw sewer spills in Ploughmans Crescent, Summer Greens Drive, Soldier Way and Planter Green. That was just in the short walk I took. This is a major issue that needs serious time, money and commitment.”
Mr Mbandezi said the City did its best to contain spills when pump stations failed because of load shedding.
“Despite contingency measures, such as (mobile) generators and telemetry systems at our sewer infrastructure, with severe load shedding, it is not logistically possible to prevent sewer overflows entirely, in which case the operational teams do their utmost to contain and clean up such flows.”
He said the City planned to install an uninterrupted power supply at the Summer Greens pump station in the coming months.
To report blocked sewers, pump station failures and vandalism, WhatsApp 060 018 1505, visit the City’s website or SMS 31373.