Some residents claim they’re experiencing chest and lung diseases due to the bad smell of the sewage. “It’s now a month since it’s happening, and we are sick and we also experiencing running stomachs, and our children are coughing throughout. We want to see government fixing it, and it has caused a lot of mosquitoes.”
“So embarrassing and it’s unhealthy for us, we are struggling a lot and this thing always a problem to us, and then the person died here, one year ago, and then they were trying to drain the manhole. But the person fell inside, and then they struggle to help him.”
Meanwhile, the opposition party in the Moretele local municipality, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) say it will engage the Speaker to respond to their questions regarding the sewer spillage. The party’s local spokesperson Cordelia Shai elaborates:
“The reason why the community is experiencing this, is because the municipality fails to provide services to them. We went to see what is happening, and then we saw the sewer spillage, and then we promise that we will continue fighting for them. We will write a question and motion to the speaker, to come and resolve the matter of sewer spillage in Mmotla, this is affecting their health.”
Working on challenges
The mayor of Moretele Local Municipality, Masango Manyike, says they are working on the challenges. He says they are engaging Magalies Water to assist them in terms of water and sewer systems. He says the most common causes of sewer blockages might be rags or clothes which are flushed down the toilets.
“There is this sewer system in Swartdam. We noticed that the sewer system it is not operational. Because this sewer system is being serviced by Magalies Water, we are having a meeting with Magalies Water to make sure that, that sewer system is functional. It is not about only the sewer system it’s the water in general, our pipes, our drainage everything is maintained by Magalies Water because as the municipality we don’t have the capacity to maintain all the pipes.”
The municipality has promised to repair damages from illegal activities and unblock the drainage systems.
Sewer spills a concern in the North West:
