Fat oils clogging up municipal sewer lines outside a building in Durban Central. | eThekwini Municipality
Durban — Some buildings in the Durban Central CBD do not have “fat traps” resulting in blockages in the sewer system.
The eThekwini Municipality unblocked a sewer pipeline at a block of flats on Park Street where they found that, inside this private property, it was clogged with “fatbergs” which resulted in the blockage.
A video shared with the Daily News from the body corporate showed water dammed up in the corridor of the building’s bottom floor.
A resident in the video said, “It looks like we have no access to the meter room. The sewer is too full and prevents access. We’ll only have access when the drains are unblocked.”
eThekwini DA PR councillor, Sharmaine Sewshanker said overflow is a major problem even in areas like North Beach and Victoria Embankment.
Sewshanker added that the restaurants that don’t have fat traps, discard their waste materials – including cooking and frying oil – into the storm water outlets; and this is causing a massive problem citywide.
“I just wish the City’s inspectors would be more on the go and do more regular check ups.
“Instead of being proactive, we have always been reactive, so if regular checks are done, this problem would not exist,” Sewshanker said.
Sewshanker added that residents in the CBD must remember that the government will not intervene with private property and that the onus is on the private property owner to maintain the building, but emphasised that this was on the main sewer line – which is the responsibility of the City.
eThekwini spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said that the City’s wastewater team discovered that the blockage is due to the misuse of the sewer system by the occupants of the building.
She said, “The sewer pipeline inside this private property was clogged with fatbergs which resulted in the blockage.
“If residents continue to abuse the sewer system, they will experience more blockages and sewer overflows in the future.
“However, when that happens, they must call a private plumber because the municipality does not unblock sewer lines at private buildings or homes.”
Although the sewer blockage complaint falls outside of the municipal infrastructure, the City’s team cleared this blockage, Sisilana said.
“The owner of the building, the residents and body corporate have to maintain and look after their infrastructure by ensuring that occupants do not dispose of foreign materials or pour oil and grease into the system as these result in blockages,” Sisilana said.
Sisilana explained that oil or grease traps should properly be installed in the building by the owners or body corporate of Doncaster which is a preventative mechanism used to ensure that fats are isolated from the sewer system.
“We do, however, continue to urge residents to change their attitude and stop introducing foreign objects into our sewer systems as they are only designed to handle water, human waste and tissue. In most cases sewer blockages which lead to overflows are caused by hardened oil fats, rags, disposable nappies and many other foreign objects,” Sisilana said.
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