‘We're living a sewage nightmare’

AFOUL stench hangs in the air in Greenpoint, where resident Susan Tlapane says her family is living a nightmare caused by raw sewage flowing into the veld behind her house.

- DANIE VAN DER LITH

Standing in her backyard with her arms raised in frustration, Tlapane pointed toward the growing pool of sewage water seeping into the open land behind her home. She believes the problem started shortly after her neighbour moved into a newly constructed house next door.

“About a month or two after the house was built and they moved in, raw sewage started flowing into the veld behind me,” Tlapane told the DFA. “I don’t know why, but something is not tight.”

When the DFA visited her home, the pungent smell of sewage was unmistakable — reaching noses even from the street.

In the neighbour's yard, the newly built house stood visible, and while the external pipes from the toilet and washbasin appeared to be correctly connected to a sewage outlet, the actual destination of the wastewater raised serious concerns.

In the veld, sewage water bubbled up from underground, suggesting that a pipe could have been purposefully laid to direct the waste into the open area. While the exact plumbing set-up could not be confirmed, what was undeniable was that the sewage came from the house and was now contaminating the surrounding environment.