Durban - Eighteen months after Jack Barth first informed the municipality that faecal matter and other waste was flowing from their system into his house, his neighbour Mohamed Amra now faces the same problem.
This week Amra woke to the sickening stench of waste flowing from Barth’s property onto his, making the entrance of his home off limits to his family.
“It’s unhealthy, it’s inhumane being here,” he told the Independent on Saturday.
Amra, who bought the house in 2019, said it wasn’t the first time, but it seemed to be getting worse. Just like Barth, he was forced to use chemicals and water to clean up the mess and sanitise his property.
“When it dries up it leaves white patches on the paving. Sometimes I don't know if the person who lived here sold the house because of the problem,” he said.
Last year Amra forked out R40 000 when the sewer line on his property collapsed, and if the municipality does not resolve the issue, fixing the latest problem could be equally costly. He has already consulted an architect about the matter.
He was aware of Barth’s ongoing problems and said at one stage the municipality sent out a team who dug up the wrong side of the road.
For Barth and his family, seeing faeces, sanitary pads, condoms, toilet paper and other waste on their property is a regular occurrence, especially after heavy rains. Despite laying several pipes and making alterations to his driveway to prevent it all running into his house again, most mornings he has to bring in labour to open manholes and unblock the drains containing rubbish from further up the road.
And despite repeated pleas for help to the municipality, the many plumbers they’ve sent have not been able to sort out the problem.
Barth, a veteran in the construction industry, said all they had to do was replace the broken pipes in the road, but everyone repeated the previous plumber’s attempts to solve his crisis and left without success.
Since the Independent on Saturday started its regular reports on the matter last year, the City has repeatedly promised that the issue would be resolved. This week it failed to respond to any queries.
Barth and his wife no longer have visitors over, frequently have to keep their windows closed, and now the matter has even affected him publicly.
“I really wish this ordeal would end. I met some people last night who said they recognised me as the sh** man. Not reassuring.”
The Independent on Saturday