It is a well-known fact that the Louis Trichardt sewerage treatment plant is at present being forced to cope with almost twice its designed capacity.

This fact became even more obvious when several desperate families approached the Zoutpansberger about an unattended sewerage spill on the corner of Pieter Otto and Anderson Streets. Apart from the immense stench that these families have to cope with, this spill also poses other serious risks.

For the past month this spill of raw sewerage water has been flowing non-stop into the town’s storm water system. Therefore, the spill does not only contaminate the town’s scarce underground water resources, but it also poses a serious health risk for humans as well as animals.

According to Mr Pokkel Pretorius, the manhole has been over-flowing sporadically for the past year he and his brother have reported the problem to the municipality more times than they can remember.

“Once there was a guy with some workers on the back of a bakkie that came to take a look at the problem. After they left, nobody else came, despite the fact that we kept on reporting the problem,” Pretorius recalled his experiences with the Makhado Municipality.

The municipality’s Director of Technical Services, Mr Thivho Ralulimi was approached for comment.

He was very quick to dismiss all the allegations made by the various families and responded by citing the “correct procedure” that residents have to comply with when lodging a complaint with the municipality.

According to Ralulimi, residents lodging a complaint must keep records of the date and name of person to whom they have spoken to.

“I don’t like it when a person just says that he called the municipality ten times and I’ll ask a simple question: Whom did you speak to? And the person will not remember the person that he spoke to,” Ralulimi said.

Ralulimi also dismissed claims that the manhole was spilling over for more than a year. According to him, his office was notified about the leakage last week and it was immediately attended to. He was dumbfounded when questioned about the health risks that raw sewerage in a storm water system might pose for humans.

“I’m saying that at the end of the day this water ... this effluent that is discharged from this manhole is going to go down to a stream somewhere. So which people drink from this stream?” was Ralulimi’s response.

Pretorius, in the mean time, confirmed that there was a municipal bulldozer working on the manhole on Friday, September 24 and that on the following Monday it appeared that the spillage was fixed.

“But why does everything with the municipality have to result in a fight?” asked Pretorius.

“I pay taxes so that the municipality can keep my town in order and as for their ´procedure´ they also have vehicles patrolling town. Why can’t they also report a problem if they see one?”

In the mean time “refurbishment” of the existing sewerage plant in Louis Trichardt, which was expected to be completed by September 3, had to be extended.

The sewerage plant, which was originally designed to handle 7.5 megalitres of effluent per day, is being upgraded to handle the current flow of 12.5 megalitres.

“Due to unforeseen circumstances the contractor had to request for a time extension, which has been granted until October 12 this year,” Ralulimi said. According to him some of the parts for the intake structure had to be ordered from Germany.

To cope with the 12 megalitre, as well as future effluent, a new sewerage plant extension is being planned adjacent to the existing sewerage plant. The Tshikota line will also be upgraded. The final presentation in this regard was done this week and, if all goes well, tenders could go out by November. A contractor could be appointed by January/February next year with construction to take about 12 months.