GEORGE NEWS - The Friends of the Kat River, an offspring of the Garden Route Dam Action Group (Gardag), is urging homeowners in George to regularise all illegal gutter connections to the municipality’s sewage system.
These illegal connections are one of the main culprits of sewage spills throughout the municipality.
Gutter water is fed into the sewage line which causes the sewage pumps to overheat through being over-worked. Stoppages for repairs cause more problems down the line.
There are 100 households in Denneoord alone whose rainwater is illegally connected to the sewage pipes.
Law enforcement inspectors simply cannot keep up with the thousands of other illegal connections.
In addition, the stop and start caused by power outages are not good for electrical equipment as we have found with our electrical appliances.
Another problem is the large scale random littering in the informal settlements.
The disposal of anything from nappies, plastic, rags, etc in toilets blocks sewer lines, chokes up stormwater pipes and causes manholes to spill over.
He says according to George Municipality, some 900km of piping, 116 sewage pumps and 60 water pumps around George have to be maintained and upgraded continuously.
With limited resources and massive escalation of costs it is a logistical and financial nightmare to have this vast network of infrastructure to run at optimum levels without any problems.
To make matters worse, the huge influx of people who have semigrated to George during the past 10 years makes it difficult to keep up with the demand for sewage and water services.
10 000 blocked drains
The municipality’s PRP (pipe replacement programme) is ongoing while having attended to 10 000 blocked drains in 2023, pump repairs and water and sewage pipe bursts at the same time.
Other challenges are that leaks are not always where they emerge from the ground and could be elsewhere and seep through to the point of exit from afar. This is time consuming and sometimes takes a day or two to locate the problem.
The depths of the underground pipes vary between 1m and 6m as the pumps are gravity fed along the pipes, sometimes over hills or underneath rivers and roads.
Delays are also caused because some spare parts have to be imported and for the municipal stores to keep spare parts for every conceivable breakdown, will cost the taxpayers dearly.
Although R1,2 billion, in the form of a municipal infrastructural grant, was provided by national government 2 years ago, one has to bear in mind that the first water pipes in George were laid 141 years ago (George is 213 years old).
While there have been continuous upgrades over many years, the huge and rapid influx of people to George and surrounds has caused that the infrastructure has not been able to keep pace with demand.
The numbers to report sewage and water complaints are 044-801 9266/62/60 or e-mail arnaki@george.gov.za or shjsmit@george.gov.za.
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