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KNYSNA NEWS - After struggling for almost a year with a broken sewage pipe on their property, and eventually reverting to Knysna-Plett Herald for assistance as their last resort, a family of Templeman Road in Knysna Heights can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The Van Tonder family have been struggling with a broken sewage pipe since about two months after the June 2017 fires ravaged Knysna. According to Johan van Tonder their home was razed during this time, and since then he and his wife have been living in Mossel Bay, leaving their son Morné behind to look after the property.
Since they noticed the smelly, bubbling cesspool of sewage on their property, said Johan, they have been in constant contact, almost weekly, with Knysna Municipality to remedy the situation. “Adding to our troubles were neighbours contacting my son continuously about the smell emanating from our property, as I was in Mossel Bay at this time. It wasn’t even our plumbing causing the problem, as I had paid for the ruins of my home to be demolished myself, including removing all plumbing,” he said.
From pillar to post
According to both Van Tonders, neighbours had also reported the problem to the municipality on numerous occasions.
Johan added that at one point, after being sent from pillar to post by the municipality, the family was informed that it was their problem and not a municipal one. “The story changed later and the municipality informed us it was our neighbour’s problem as the pipe was actually on her property,” said Johan.
His worry was also that all this effluent ended up in the Knysna estuary.
Morné said that after reporting their issue to the municipality, he would usually not smell the sewage spill for a few days, “but it would return even worse and so it went on and on for a long time”, he said.
Although he lives elsewhere in Knysna, Morné visits the property on an almost daily basis to maintain it. He added that while contractors were busy rebuilding or repairing homes in the neighbourhood after the fires, many of them would approach him and query whether the terrible smell came from their property.
Morné van Tonder points to where the smelly run-off from the broken sewage pipe was streaming down the hill on a daily basis. Photo: Stefan Goosen
Action at last
So, for almost a year, both father and son have done their utmost to resolve the problem on their own.
On Friday 29 June, Knysna-Plett Herald sent the family's queries to the municipality asking for immediate answers. On Monday 2 July spokesperson Christopher Bezuidenhout requested an extension, as “we are all in a council meeting, including the relevant officials that must supply us with the necessary information”.
Knysna-Plett Herald paid a visit to Morné on Tuesday morning 3 July, at the property in Templeman Road, and found three municipal workers digging up the sewage pipe with spades –the first time according to him that any municipal employee had been there since two men arrived there months ago, armed with spades, but soon left. "After poking around with the spades the workers decided this was too much of a tedious job and they will have to get a machine, they then disappeared," he said.
“Half of me is extremely happy that they are here today, after we struggled so long. I just hope the issue comes to an end because it isn’t right that we had to wait like this,” said Morné, adding that even if repairs to the pipe took a week it was fine as long as the problem did not return.
The municipality confirmed late Tuesday afternoon, at 14:40, that their technical team has repaired the sewer pipe.
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