Armed with nothing but spades and brooms, two teenagers have shown up the municipality in Uitenhage, fixing a sewage leak and the potholes it has been causing along Tuna Drive for the last several years.
Depending on necessity, Tiryville residents Manfred Fortein, 19, and Amelio Oorman, 14, spend every second weekend fixing and filling the same sewage dam which regularly swamps Tuna Drive.
The pool of sewage comes from a bubbling leak, cascading down a nearby embankment, with raw sewage being left in its wake and a powerful stench hanging in the air – a problem that has been temporarily fixed by the municipality on several occasions.
However, the alleged slow response time by municipal services and the bacteria-ridden environment had prompted the pair to start fixing the problem themselves about four years ago, residents said.
Fortein said they received no payment for their services, which included covering the sewage pool with sand, aside from the odd cooldrink or food donation from grateful neighbours.
“It’s not about the money, it’s about living in a clean environment. Especially for the children in the area who walk past and through this every day because it floods in front of the shop,” Fortein said.
“We report the leaks regularly but it takes days before someone arrives. So we watched what they [municipal services] do and then we do the same. It is usually just a blockage that has built up, then we clear it using our own steel rods we found in the bush.
“But a more permanent solution needs to be found by the municipality. They have been attending to this same problem for at least five years. Why can’t it be fixed permanently?”
Tuna Road resident Lelanie Swarts said all the residents were grateful for the teens who on occasion had climbed down the manhole to remove foreign objects.
“We know it is dangerous for them to be climbing into the manhole but what other choice do we have? It is as dangerous for the little kids in the area to be exposed to this filth,” Swarts said.
“I have been living directly opposite this sewage pool since the problem started years ago. And the smell really does become overwhelming. One can’t wait days at a time for the problem to be fixed.”
Municipal spokesperson Kupido Baron said residents in the area were to blame for the regular blockages.
“We looked at some of the causes for older complaints for Tiryville, Lapland, and the deposit of foreign objects in the drain such as rags causes most of the blockages,” Baron said.
“This remains a serious headache.”