Durban — Residents and members of the Port Edward and Banners Rest Ratepayers’ Association (Pebbra) had a meeting with the Ugu District Municipality on Monday to provide ways to solve the ongoing sewage problems.
Ward 1 resident Dave Watson, who has lived there for 42 years, said the problem had been going on for almost seven years.
“All the houses that have water board sewage, their gravity fed down to the Boundary Road and Sea Verge stations. From there, it is pumped up to where the sewage is treated.
“The issue is that if they fail, it overflows on to the beaches. The Boundary Road station goes into the estuary nearby and then overflows on to the beach,” said Watson.
Watson said while they were there, they noted that it was both a health hazard and an environmental hazard.
“The Ugu municipality said it was out of their technical brief, so they secured an external contractor. The municipality has been reacting, but the problem has not been resolved,” said Watson.
Ugu District Municipality ward 1 councillor Stephanie Breedt said Pebbra discussed the way forward in resolving the problems at the sewage treatment works in Boundary Road and at Sea Verge.
“A pump has been repaired, it must be paid for and delivered.
“The new pump will be installed at the earliest opportunity. There will be repairs made to the sump structure and the access road, plus the overflow pipe. There will be telemetry installed to monitor the running of the pump, and until this happens, the sewage treatment works will be inspected daily,” said Breedt.
She said they were also told that the mess in Boundary Road with open holes, broken manholes and a damaged driveway would be resolved this week.
Breedt added that the Departments of Health and Environmental Affairs were present to test the water daily and put pressure on Ugu to resolve the issue and reopen the beaches for bathing as soon as the water-testing results allowed it.
“The results are already a lot better, and we are hoping everything will be set for the school holidays,” said Breedt.
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