It has been 13 months of raw sewage in Van der Stel Avenue, Virginia.
This seems to have come to an end after residents intervened and appointed a contractor to replace the sewer lines.
Kevin Ostermeyer, chairman of the Ward 8 residents committee, says he personally fought national, provincial and local government to have the problem addressed.
“The Department of Water and Sanitation eventually responded and work started on 7 November and was completed by 3 December,” he says.
The burst sewer lines were at the Emmanuel Childrens Haven, home to 30 children aged from newborn to 12 years.
“Some of our children are malnourished and their immune systems are compromised. The constant exposure to the sewage led to ill health and stomach ailments,” says Petro Rieger, the housemother at Emmanuel.
Ostermeyer on Monday (12/12) told Vista that the sewage spills have been addressed, but that Van der Stel Avenue was in an extremely poor condition.
“The storm water drains and some of the sewers are open and dangerous at night as there are no street lights. If a pedestrian falls into one of these manholes there will be dire consequences for the Matjhabeng Municipality.”
Ostermeyer says that getting the sewer problem in Van der Stel fixed has been a protracted process since November 2021, with tremendous inconvenience to residents.
“There has been a huge amount of correspondence to the Human Rights Commission, Green Scorpions and the MEC of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) in Bloemfontein which from my perspective was unnecessary should the Matjhabeng Municipality have done their work from the onset of this untenable situation,” says Ostermeyer.
