Strandfontein residents say they are gatvol of sewage spills along Camp Road which is causing a stink in their community.
Resident Vinesh Manilall, 57, who has been living in Strandfontein for 35 years, says he has complained for more than a year, without any results.
He says a manhole just under the Baden Powell Drive bridge continuously pops, causing raw sewage to spill into the street and surrounding areas.
Manilall says he often finds puddles of “shitty water” in the road.
“There is obviously no capacity in the system, causing this to happen. But we have been dealing with the constant stench and shitty puddles with no help from the City,” he says.
“We can’t even use this road to go to the beach and you can see they recently re-tarred this area, but that it is not a solution. This is shitty street.”
Manilall showed the Daily Voice the left-over dirty toilet paper, used tampons and condom wrappers that come from the sewer and end up on the road’s surface.
“You can see this is basically now dried up sewage and this stuff is filled with bacteria that can make people sick.”
The City can confirm that the blockage was cleared on the day that it was reported. The team removed sticks, rags and stones from the sewer.
The City has had to replace stolen manhole covers under the bridge close to the 7de Laan Informal Settlement at least three times.
Once the manhole covers are stolen the manholes become the repositories for all kinds of foreign objects such as sticks, rags, stones, builder’s rubble etc. The rags emanating from the informal settlement contribute largely to blockages.
The City suspects that the sewer is deliberately being blocked.