Silvertown residents are trying to get the smell of faeces out of their homes after a sewer overflowed last week.
Resident Desire Julius said sewage from the drain on her property had swamped three neighbours’ homes on Monday June 13 and heavy rains had hampered their efforts to mop up.
After many calls and emails, City sanitation staff had come out on Tuesday afternoon June 14 to unblock the drain, she said, adding that it had been impossible for the affected residents to prepare meals because of the stench.
“We fear that it will happen again if it rains. My kids haven’t eaten because who wants to eat in a house that smells like poo? We’ve heard nothing from the councillor yet. I am so frustrated. My one-year-old daughter couldn’t even be here,” she said.
She accused ward councillor Anthony Moses of doing little to help.
“He does absolutely nothing for us. All he says is, ‘We are following up,’ but who will pay for the damages?” she said, adding that she had had to throw out food because of the incident.
“In December last year, we had the same issue, and they took 48 hours to sort it out.”
Neighbour Fazlin Safodien said residents could not depend on Mr Moses.
“He is never there when we need him. We are so tired of this. Every time it’s the same thing we are going through. It’s not something small, it’s big floods of faeces,” she said.
Mr Moses said he had communicated with the residents that the City was dealing with a backlog of flooding reports and would attend to the complaint as soon as possible.
“We are trying to figure out a way to avoid these types of incidents. It is not just in Silvertown but all over Cape Town. All of the ward councillors are complaining about the same thing. Some of the other wards are much worse,” he said.