Residents of a block of council flats in Rylands are fed up with a stench in their homes, low water pressure and pipe blockages.
Coral Court’s sewerage pipes have been faulty for several weeks, despite several complaints to the City, says community leader Fowzia Veerasamy.
City sanitation staff had come out on Wednesday February 17 but had been unable to unblock the drains because, according to one of them, the entire sewer line had collapsed, she said.
The week before a City health department official had visited the block and admitted it was a health hazard, she said.
“Someone needs to take accountability for this,” she said. “They keep investigating and blaming the residents. These are seniors who can’t use their toilets or flush. It’s unfair on them.”
Leela Pramjee said there was low water pressure in her flat’s taps and poor drainage in her bathroom.
“I’ve been trying to use things to unblock the drains like Jeyes Fluid, but nothing works. The water is so slow and drains so slowly it’s really frustrating,” she said.
Noorjehaan Shariff said the water smelled bad and, for the past week, it had been pushing up in the toilet when she flushed. “When I open the toilet door at night the smell is horrible,” she said.
Elaine Percival said her toilet leaked and the cistern kept running. “The smell is awful, and I keep using air freshener, but it doesn’t help. We don’t know what to do anymore,” she said. “They keep saying we must wait but for how long?”
Saabirah Maroof said she had to pull her toilet’s chain six or seven times to get it to flush properly. “It uses a lot of water to flush like that every time,” she said. “It is costly.”
Mariam Kajie said she was unable to use her bathroom for most of the day because very little water came out of the taps, and it smelled bad. Her complaints to various City departments had failed to resolve the problem.
“The City says the hold up is the supply chain, so where are they? Nobody knows. They need to take responsibility so that the process can go quicker,” she said.
Rylands ward councillor Aslam Cassim said a collapsed sewer line on Tuesday February 9 had caused the sanitation problems at the block.
“On Monday I was told that the issue was with the City’s supply-chain management. They were sourcing contractors or materials for the job,” he said.
Xanthea Limberg, mayoral committee member for water and waste, said the City was seeking a contractor to repair the pipeline as soon as possible.
“In the meantime, over-pumping using a mobile pump has been taking place to avoid overflows in the area,” she said.