Failing South African Sewage Plants Cost Lives, Urban Damage

Frequent sewage blockages have resulted in residents of Siyanda B near KwaMashu, Durban taking action and demanding that the eThekwini Municipality find a permanent solution to the problem. For over six years residents have had to deal with the overflowing sewage in their community with complaints to authorities falling on deaf ears.

The township's state is the latest example of poor sewerage infrastructure becoming an increasingly significant problem for residents, with another being KwaNobuhle, Kariega, where a six-year-old drowned. Furious residents confronted the deputy mayor and her delegation after the child's death with one telling the officials: "You only come to us when our children die."

Adfditionally, in the wake of cholera-related deaths, scientists have warned that the nation's failing sewerage treatment plants present a national health emergency.