MUNICIPAL DYSFUNCTION: Community members clean up sewage spill at old age home after City inaction

Community members stepped in to clean up raw sewage at a Westdene old-age home on Tuesday, 25 August, after a blocked pipe flooded the facility and municipal workers failed to respond promptly.

Westdene community members said the spillage was linked to a longstanding maintenance problem: roots had grown into the sewer pipes, causing repeated blockages that the City had dealt with through temporary interventions rather than addressing the underlying problem.

“There are roots that block the pipes, and instead of them getting in there and doing things properly, [the City] comes to do these little one-offs all the time,” said community member Clint Hill.

Another Westdene resident, Brian Smith, said the sewage began spilling from the facility at about 10am on Tuesday, 25 August. He made several unsuccessful attempts to contact Johannesburg Water.

Community members eventually managed to get hold of Johannesburg Water after what Smith described as a “hunt” to find someone who would attend to the problem.

Hill explained that because the City’s Housing Department manages the facility – the Eeufees Oord Old Age Home – Johannesburg Water typically requires a departmental work order before attending to sewer faults on the site.

“You can’t get a hold of Housing because Housing hasn’t paid their [phone] bill,” he claimed.

Hill said community members, together with ward councillor Genevieve Sherman, pressured Johannesburg Water to attend to the blockage despite the lack of a work order. He said more than 30 people had reported the problem before Johannesburg Water eventually attended to it. Other residents arranged for private plumbers to assist, at their own expense.

The plumbers worked into the evening and at about 7pm discovered that the problem was not confined to Eeufees. A blocked pipe on Westdene’s Main Road had caused sewage to back up and spill into the old-age facility.

The spill soon spread beyond the property. Community members reported that sewage entered stormwater drains, raising fears of contamination cascading downstream into public spaces and water bodies.

“All the crap and everything is flying all over the show, and flowing into the stormwater drains, which ends up in Emmarentia Dam and the Botanical Gardens,” said Hill.

Community cleanup

The spill raised grave health concerns given the vulnerability of elderly residents exposed to raw sewage and faecal matter. Although residents asked Johannesburg Water to clean and disinfect the affected grounds once the blockage was cleared, Hill said they were told the waste would be left to dry before crews returned.

Smith said Johannesburg Water eventually provided a resident with a bottle of Jeyes Fluid, saying, “You go and clean it up.”

Another community member, who requested anonymity, said that when she contacted the Department of Health, she too was told that officials would only come to assist once the sewage had dried.

The Gauteng Department of Health had not responded to a request for comment by the time of publication.

With no immediate cleanup forthcoming, Westdene residents took matters into their own hands.

“We took our own pressure washers and Jeyes and washed where the people walk, so at least if they’re walking, they are not tracking it through their apartments,” said Smith.

The incident has since been resolved, Smith told Daily Maverick. He said the Gauteng Department of Health arrived on Saturday to assist with the cleanup, though community members had already done most of the heavy lifting themselves.

Neglected

The sewage spill is not an isolated incident. Residents say Eeufees has suffered years of unaddressed infrastructure failures, pointing to systemic neglect in the City’s upkeep of the government facility.

Smith said that earlier this year, an elderly resident fell and broke her arm and suffered several facial injuries, with poor lighting contributing to the incident. He said the City did not address the lighting problem, prompting Westdene residents to organise the installation of additional street lighting themselves.

“This is just a little symptom of everything else that is happening at Eeufees. That whole place is full of black mould. There are so many problems, and the Department of Housing is just turning a blind eye. They don’t care,” said Smith.

Daily Maverick sought comment from Johannesburg Water, which requested a reference number linked to a complaint about the incident before it could respond.

However, ward councillor Sherman said residents had been required to log complaints with the City’s Department of Housing, and Daily Maverick was unable to obtain a reference number from Johannesburg Water before publication.

The City’s Department of Housing and the City of Johannesburg had not responded to a request for comment by the time of publication. DM