Durban - Morningside business owners and residents are irate at the stench of sewage that hangs in the air day and night.
This week, residents and business owners from Montpelier Road this week said they are disgusted by the smell of raw sewage that has dominated the air for the past few months.
They say the putrid smell hangs in the air day and night; but while it's manageable when it rains or the weather is cooler, on hot and humid days the smell is sickening.
This week the Independent on Saturday spoke to Jonathan Gild, the irate owner of the Boston Brew coffee shop on the corner of Montpelier and Gordon roads.
He said many of his clients had expressed unhappiness with the smell and at times some of them didn’t feel comfortable having a sit-down meal because the stench made them feel sick.
Adding to his troubles, the coffee shop only had an outside seating area so there is no escape for patrons.
“For two or three days straight I’ve tried high pressure cleaning,” he said.
Gild said the cleaning helped a bit but the smell returned.
The municipality also cleaned the drain and removed a lot of rubbish that had accumulated there, but it was only a temporary solution.
He said the water appeared to flow from Currie Road and even passed a school which could affect the pupils.
“It’s a health hazard to everyone,” said Gild.
He said surprisingly the water only started to flow from about 7.30am every day, and stopped flowing at certain other times.
Gild, who opened the coffee shop about three years ago, said he was also concerned that the issue would not be resolved before December, which he expected to be his busiest month.
He said a lasting solution was needed because the smell was permanently in the air.
Gild said the matter had been reported to the municipality many times and that a local lawyer and several other people had complained about the issue and received reference numbers, but the problem persisted.
He said the municipality had attended to the matter but nothing had changed.
Meanwhile, a plumber from the Morningside area, Kelvin Caldwell, said as far as he could judge it appeared to be a minor issue which wouldn't take long to fix.
Caldwell had collected a slew of correspondences from the municipality in which various managers asked for the matter to be attended to.
He said several of the residents had contacted the municipality about the permanent stench.
Yesterday, eThekwini Municipality’s spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said they had prioritised the matter since it was brought to their attention again.
“It is incorrect to say that we have only been out once to attend to the blockage. We have been there more than two times already and after each time, we return the situation has worsened. Residents are urged to stop disposing of foreign objects into the system,” he said.
The Independent on Saturday