As another Northern Cape school becomes flooded in sewage, the Democratic Alliance (DA) is calling on COGHSTA to urgently intervene given numerous failed appeals to Emthanjeni municipality to address the spillage.
Emthanjeni municipality has not emptied septic tanks in Hanover for almost a month. Hanover Primary School is one of the worst casualties of this service delivery failure. The school’s grounds and drains are almost permanently overflowing, creating a health and safety risk for learners and educators. The ditches on the outskirts of the local school hostel are also filled with sewage. The hostel accommodates approximately 80 educators and learners from farm areas, from Hanover Primary and from Phakamisani High School.
In addition to threatening schooling, the sewage spills are also posing a threat to the contamination of underground water sources.
Emthanjeni’s only operational honeysucker has been assisting with sewerage services in De Aar and sometimes Britstown, largely neglecting Hanover. Attempts by municipal officials to delay services in the week, to receive extra overtime on the weekends, is also a growing trend in Emthanjeni.
The community is angry that they are expected to pay for a service that is increasingly non-existent because the honey-sucker is either in for repairs, or in De Aar or Britstown. My attempts to get the municipality to address the growing sewage crisis at the school have also not been responded to with the seriousness deserved. Instead, the head of sanitation incorrectly claims that overflow seen at the school is gray water, not sewage. This is false, as the school does not possess a gray water tank.
Last week, a school in Kimberley lost out on a week’s schooling due to sewage overflow on the school premises. This situation must not be allowed to repeat itself in Hanover.
I have again reported the matter to the municipality, asking that they urgently facilitate as many removal loads as required to stop the sewage overflow in Hanover. The DA has also escalated the matter to COGHSTA for an intervention and we will raise it with the Education Department during legislature committee meetings in the week ahead.