The Chris Hani District Municipality says it will be appointing a service provider to clean up the sewerage system at Molteno that has seen raw sewerage flowing into the Stormberg River.
The Municipality was commenting today after civil rights group Afriforum wrote to the Municipal Manager, Moppo Mene, appealing for urgent action.
The organisation's provincial coordinator, Thomas van Dalen, said that Molteno residents have been experiencing regular water and sewerage problems for the past two years.
He said the pump station does not work and residents experience regular water shortages and major restrictions, especially between 6pm and 4am.
"As a result, the raw sewage is now dumped directly into the Stormberg River. The river flows past a suburb as well as an informal settlement whose residents use the river to prepare food, wash clothes and bathe. Children play in the river and animals drink from it. The pollution poses major health risks to everyone who comes into contact with the water," Van Dalen said.
Chris Hani District Municipality spokesperson, Thobeko Mqamelo, said ailing infrastructure and vandalism has compounded the problem.
She said they have appointed a service provider to fix the problems while also conducting ongoing educational campaigns in communities to stop the vandalism.
"There had been constant spillage of sewerage into the Stormsberg River and the Municipality is aware of this. We started working on this a year and a half a go where we replaced a pump that seemed to have problems at that point in time and the situation improved," she said.
However, Mqamelo said the spillages started again and it became clear that it was not only the infrastructure that has been a problem but also issues of vandalism. "We have discovered in the pump station huge rocks that are thrown inside and a lot of garbage that had been thrown into the pump station," Mqamela added.
She said teams were on site on Thursday to inspect and repair infrastructure following another spillage, adding that a service provider has been appointed to assist.
"Currently we have also engaged a service provider to look at the entire network system within the Molteno area and we are hoping that this, coupled with awareness campaigns in the communities, that will alleviate some of the challenges that have been experienced in the area," she said.
(Pic) Afriforum
