Sewerage effluent’s flow into Moses River receives attention

PHOOKO – Following complaints from residents of Moutse outside Groblersdal about the problematic sewerage effluent flow into the Moses River, Sekhukhune District Municipality (SDM) has installed a system in Phooko Village to address the predicament.

Moses River remains one of the water sources in the water services challenged area within the SDM’s Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality.

The residents worried that for over five months the sewerage spillage into the river had been reported but nothing had been forthcoming from the district municipality.

According to the residents, the snail’s pace at which the district municipality was moving in addressing the matter pushed them to report to the office of the Public Protector (PP) to request attention on the potential health risk.

The office of the PP recently visited the site to witness firsthand the extent of the problem and following that the SDM committed to address the matter as that of urgency.

At the time, Khomotso Ndlovu, SDM Acting Communications Manager, told the publication that the district municipality was giving the problem its utmost attention and that they were in the process of procuring the sewer booster pump needed to fix the system.

On Tuesday, 17 January 2023 the SDM commenced with the installation of new sewage submersible pumps.

Ndlovu said the new submersible pumps system were a replacement of the defective previous ones at the Phooko sewage booster pump station.

Fannie Mogotji, a community leader, expressed satisfactory remarks that barely two months in the office, the SDM Executive Mayor (EM), Maleke Mokganyetji and her team have made sure that the issue of effluent sewerage spillage into the Moses River was solved.

“That problem gave us headaches for over six months. The office of the PP had to intervene. Finally we are thankful that it has been solved. We give a big thank you to the office of the EM and everyone involved,” concluded Mogotji.