The Shell diesel depot in Landbou Road in Kimberley will be sending the bill to Sol Plaatje Municipality after hiring a private company to unblock its overflowing sewage manholes.
THE SHELL diesel depot in Landbou Road in Kimberley will be sending the bill to Sol Plaatje Municipality after hiring a private company to unblock its overflowing sewage manholes.
Danie Botha and Deon Schoeman, who work and stay at the depot during the week, stated that the overflowing sewage flooded the road on a daily basis for the past two years.
“We moved to Kimberley from Gauteng and invested R18 million in the terminal that supplies millions of litres of diesel to farms and businesses all over the Northern Cape … We were not aware that the problem was so serious when we moved here and are paying rates of R97,000 per month. It is a health hazard and the raw sewage splatters onto our clients’ cars and makes the road impossible to navigate. The smell is overwhelming and we cannot open the windows.”
They added that numerous attempts by Sol Plaatje Municipality to fix the persistent sewage problems had failed.
Harry Hurndall, from Roburn Construction, has been hired to unblock the drain and find the source of the problem.
“We will go along the pipeline to find the source and we will check every manhole that is situated around 800 metres apart.”
He believes that the infrastructure of the city does not have the capacity to process the amount of sewage in the system.
“The problem was aggravated by the development of the mall.”
The CEO of the Northern Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nocci), Sharon Steyn, stated that the lack of service delivery in Kimberley was chasing away investment.
“This is one of the worst cases of sewage overflow that is affecting businesses in the city, although many others are experiencing the same problem. We would like to work together with Sol Plaatje Municipality.”
She called for the rates of businesses affected by poor service delivery to be scrapped.
“We will be forwarding the bill for unblocking the sewage to Sol Plaatje Municipality because they have a responsibility to provide basic services.”
Sol Plaatje Municipality spokesperson Thoko Riet said the local authority regretted the inconvenience.
“We need to do a thorough investigation to detect what the underlying problem is and once that is concluded we will respond accordingly, with all facts.”
