A flood of sewage has ruined a community food garden that more than 90 families rely on for their livelihood.
A flood of sewage has ruined a community food garden that more than 90 families rely on for their livelihood.
A pipe burst near Umthathi Training Project in Extension 7 and overflowed into the vegetable gardens on Monday 7 October.
Project employee Zolani Zondani said plumbers from the municipality had come to fix the leak earlier this week, but on Thursday 10 October the pipe had burst again, spilling more sewage into the garden.
Zondani, who is the organisation's indigenous plants facilitator, said not only vegetables but also indigenous plants had been destroyed by the sewage water that flooded in the area.
"Pensioners and unemployed people grow the vegetables to feed their families, and also to earn an income," Zondani said.
The indigenous plants are grown as part of Umthathi's Africulture programme that teaches sustainable resource management and skills in the cultivation, use and preservation of traditionally used indigenous plants.
"The sewage spills come from neighbouring houses," Zondani said.
The organisation's office and grounds are in Xhora Street.
"A lot of the garden has been destroyed," he said, "and we don't know how we will get more seeds to plant again".
He said they had now asked for the municipality's parks department to come and dig a trench to divert the sewage from the gardens.
"These spills happen frequently and we just want a way to make sure our gardens don't get flooded again," Zondani said.
Director of Infrastructure and Engineering Services for the municipality, Thembinkosi Myalato, told Grocott's Mail that municipal plumbers had fixed the leak, but were called on Thursday to hear it had burst again.
"Our guys are there busy fixing it as we speak," Myalato said on Friday shortly after 10am.
He said anything could cause a blockage, which is the usual cause of a burst pipe.
"Anything from foreign objects in the system to a capacity issue (too much sewage for too little pipes) can cause a pipe to burst," Myalato said.
