The strong smell of raw sewage is hard to miss as you drive or walk through the streets of Tshiame B, near Harrismith in the Eastern Free State. 

Residents say human excrement and foul-smelling water constantly flow through their yards and streets. They say they’ve been living with unattended, blocked and leaking sewerage pipes for over 30 years.  It has become every family’s duty to work around the spillages and try to redirect it into the streets by digging make-shift canals.

 Manthabiseng Mdakane, who has lived in Tshiame since 1990, says this has been their living condition since the 1990s.

“It was in 1995 when they installed the pipes. I was only 27 years old at that time and now I am 60 years old. I have been fighting with the sewage spillages for decades. I always have to clean the human and general waste. Every day, I have to go out and clean my yard because the dirt from the mining hole comes straight into the yard,” she says.

She says they have reported the spillages to the Maluti-a-Phofung local municipality over and over again, but they do not see the point of reporting anymore since it only stops for a few hours after being fixed.

“The municipality has given up on these things. When you report, they will take weeks to come. Sometimes they don’t even come. They told us the problem with the area is the size of the pipes. They said the pipes were too small, hence the constant spillages. It is not healthy to stay here, but we have no options. 

Health Hazard

Another resident, Manthodi Tsotetsi believes that her mother’s death came as a result of the sewage spillages which were running through that yard as she had to deal with that daily.

“My mother, Elizabeth Lekgula died in 2021. She became sick and complained about something in her chest. She was taken to the hospital and she never came back. You can imagine that she was inhaling that sewage smell every day because she had tried to redirect the spillages from coming into the house,” she says.

Maleshoane Mohapi, an environmental health officer, says numerous biological and chemical irritants, including toxic gases, bacteria, genotoxic agents, and hazardous organic compounds, can be found in sewage spills.

“Numerous health problems, including infection, inflammation, skin irritation, heavy metal toxicity, respiratory disorders, and even cancer, can result from both acute and extended exposure to these dangerous compounds. Lakes, rivers, streams, and subterranean reservoirs are examples of freshwater ecosystems that are vital to human health and survival because they supply vital drinking water and protein provisioning. When sewage spills directly into freshwater systems, human health is immediately impacted, resulting in a variety of waterborne diseases that can occasionally be fatal,” she warns.

During a Health-e News visit to the Tshiame Township, sewage was running into several yards while other people were spotted sweeping the grey water near their yards. Some community members say they have lost hope that the spillages will ever be fixed. 

Tebogo Radebe, acting communications manager at Maluti-a-Phofung Water, says the sewer network experiences frequent blockages due to the underdesign of the network. She says the sewer network in the area is 110 mm instead of 160 mm, which then leads to recurring spillages. 

“We are aware of the sewage spillage in Tshiame B, and we are actively assisting in unblocking the affected areas,” she says. 

She says one of the major causes of the frequent sewer blockages is residents depositing foreign materials into the drains and toilets. “We urge everyone to avoid these practices to help reduce blockages. A request for the refurbishment and upgrading of the Tshiame sewage system has already been submitted to the municipality,” she says. – Health-e News