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Sewage spill
The CEO of the Council for the Built Environment, Dr Msizi Myeza, has highlighted the lack of critical skills as the factor contributing to the declining state of the country’s municipalities.
In some communities within the Emfuleni Municipality in the Vaal, residents are struggling with severe sanitation issues as they are overwhelmed by raw sewage.
The stench of human waste, crumbling infrastructure and pleas for help fill the air as residents grapple with life-threatening conditions in what experts are calling a national emergency.
Dr Myeza says the local government’s failure to expand infrastructure in response to the increasing number of people moving into urban centres is exacerbating the crisis.
“Local government has lost critical skills over the years especially engineers, town planners and artisans who are actually critical in the maintenance and expansion of infrastructure. So, all these challenges make it difficult for a municipality like Emfuleni which has other problems that has actually led to these challenges to respond to what we are seeing today. I think for me when we called it a challenge that requires a national response, I’m not saying we not doing it, but I think it requires more of an urgency.”
In April last year, Emfuleni residents raised concerns about a reeking sewer spillage that had been flowing into their homes for weeks.
They are demanding government clean up its act and fix the broken pipes after the municipality issued a warning to residents to stop drinking tap water after sewage contaminated the local water source.
VIDEO | Emfuleni residents in Gauteng fed up with sewer spillage:
