by Sibabalwa Tame
George Goliath of Fitchat Street is a Makhanda resident and a campus officer at Rhodes University who lives with a very large water leak outside his house.
For the past six weeks, water has been leaking and has now formed a large pool on the busy street, that many Tantyi children use to walk to and from school.
Goliath was told that the leak is the result of damaged underground water pipes. The pipes are made of asbestos and “they can only serve you for many years before they eventually get damaged” he said.
He said what worries him the most about this problem is that there there are a lot of insects in the water and there are children who play in that water, which is a big problem.
Cows and donkeys urinate in the pool of water and then drink it. Goliath also believes that the water is mixed with sewage.
Because the water pool is growing, it spreads into the street and makes the existing potholes much larger. The community is now trying to fill in the potholes to prevent further damage.
“The community is trying by all means to cover it up,” said Goliath, noting that even though Rhodes Music Radio had visited the area, the municipality had still not repaired the leak.
When Goliath was asked by the reporters whether or not he had reported the leak to the Makana Municipality, his response was “yes, several times”.
Goliath says the municipality only patched up a small piece of the leak. He had told the municipality that by patching only a small piece of the leakage, the pressure is going to build up on the other side.
“Makana Municipality has to wake up and do what they are supposed to do,” said Goliath. He said there is a storm drain that was last cleaned about two years ago and “if they cleaned at least once a month, we would not be having this problem”.
