The rancid smell of sewage fills the air. Employees of a local business’s premises in Van Der Bijl Street are left gagging for fresh air.
Beverly Barnard of Newcon Fencing and Palisades explains the source of the stench hails from a sewage leak. A leak which she claims the Newcastle Municipality began repairing in November 2019.
“The smell is horrible; we don’t even want to eat lunch at work anymore. The municipality began fixing the problem in our work’s premises and in the open piece of land behind our work premises in November. But they haven’t finished yet.”
Now nearly eight months after the municipality began working on the sewage leak, Barnard says the municipality is nowhere near finished resolving the issue.
She claims she was told that the municipality was waiting for the relevant pipes to fix the leak.
As the sewage leak poses a potential health risk, Barnard feels the municipality needs to take the relevant steps to repair the sewage leak.
The Newcastle Municipality’s Communication was contacted for comment on the matter. However, no response was forthcoming at the time of the article being published.
