Durban — Phoenix residents say they feel neglected by the eThekwini municipality amid a sewage spill which has been a problem for at least eight months.
Community activist Vivian Pillay said the spill was due to the vandalism of a pump house nearby, allegedly by vagrants whom he said wanted to steal cables. This has since caused the lives of people living on Acara Street in Stonebridge to be unbearable as the smell is awful. The residents claim that the municipality said they did not have enough resources and a sufficient budget to fix this problem.
Ronald Chetty, who is a resident, said it puzzled them how the municipality would say that they did not have enough budget to fix the sewage problem whereas the community pays rates, which are not cheap. Chetty added that they have a problem with mosquitoes. And that mosquitoes from the sewage may be deadly – as they researched that they could transmit malaria.
“Our health is also compromised in this regard, this is a human rights violation and we might need to involve the Human Rights Commission because this is no way humans need to live. We have had to take out money from our pockets to get chemicals that can kill these mosquitoes, sadly we can’t get anything that can dumb down the smell,” he said.
One resident, Kogilan Pillay, said his concern is that if this is not taken care of it is going to build up and they will be forced to move.
However, the eThekwini Municipality, maintains that the allegations against them neglecting the community are untrue.
EThekwini Municipality spokesperson, Msawakhe Mayisela, said they always try their level best to help communities... however, they fix things and they come back and find that communities have made the situation worse.
“Communities do not want to work with us by constantly vandalising municipal property and also disposing of alien things thus causing the spurring of the sewage,” he said.
Mayisela said they respond to communities but the residents do not want to work hand-in-hand with them in pinpointing the people who vandalise and make matters worse. He said they will go have a look at the area again.
The residents, however, maintained that they have not received any help from the municipality even after months of writing to them.
“We understand that they might not have a budget but they must give us access to the pump station and also provide us with honey suckers so that we can suck the dirt for ourselves,” concluded Chetty.
Daily News