Rate boycott over sewer crisis

ROW: UTILITY 'IGNORES WARNINGS AS LINE COLLAPSE SPILLS MILLIONS OF LITRES OF SEWAGE'

- Sean Christie

On 24 March, Wilfred Mole, chair of the Carlswald Resident's Association (CRA) in Midrand, sent an email to Joburg Water's managing director Ntshavheni Mukwevho. The subject line was blunt: "A matter which can no longer be ignored.

Mole's frustration had been building for two decades. As early as 2005, Carlswald residents had warned Joburg Water about serious infrastructure problems in the valley.

The main issue was the outfall sewer, built in the late 1990s by a developer with permission from the Midrand town council.

Intended only for a small townhouse development and a handful of smallholdings, the line was privately constructed and never designed to carry the load of multiple new developments.

"As ever more developments were added to this very small and inadequate sewer it began to break, block and erupt through the manholes. It now fails almost on a weekly basis," Mole wrote.

The problem was worsened by the fact that the sewer ran down the middle of the valley, directly in the path of floodwaters.

Longtime resident Penny Hoets said increased development in the upper catchment had transformed the seasonal stream into a raging torrent after storms.

"It has gouged a huge donga on properties below us. This was all exacerbated by the sewage line being constructed along the floor of the valley, where disturbed soil made it easier for the flow to gouge out deep ditches and dongas," she said.