Choking on the smell of faeces

Residents in De Bruin Park is once again getting the short en of the stick, as sewerage lines are blocked and overflowing, with no reprieve from Msukaligwa Local Municipality. Residents in Generaal Botha Road have are left with their hands in their hair, and their yards drenched in sewage as blocked lines makes life miserable for everyone in the area. In some cases, sewage has been constantly overflowing for more than a week, and complaints from residents to MLM fall on deaf ears. Speaking to the Tribune ePaper, a resident in Camden Avenue, living near the marshlands next to Nomndeni, also complained about the constant smell of sewage in the field, as well as the field between President Fouché Avenue and Tom Muller Street.

“It is a nightmare living like this on a daily basis. You can literally hear the sewage bubbling the field, and the smell is always here, not matter which direction the wind blows in. It is especially bad at night and in the early morning, I don’t know why. I am out of options, the call centre always says they will send someone, but the problem is just always there, it is never solved.” he stated. Residents in President Fouché Avenue also suffers in the stench of sewage overflows, with pooling sewage baking in the sun on a daily basis.

Despite the wholly unhygienic situation that residents are put in during a pandemic, the health risks associated with breathing in the overpowering particle-filled stench is a major cause for concern. Some residents in President Fouché Avenue have to drive through pools of raw sewage on a daily basis, and the overflow is further exacerbated by the fact that an education facility is in close proximity to the pools of raw sewage. Several complaints have been lodged regarding the call centre at MLM, with operators allegedly claiming that the system is offline, and they are unable to provide complainants with reference numbers to their complaints.

In light of this, operators request residents to make a return call to find out if the issue has been tended to. This is not the first time that residents have complained about the call centre operators, and the feeble excuses that are provided to frustrated residents. Unsurprisingly, and mostly expected by residents, MLM failed to reply to enquiries submitted by the Tribune ePaper.