Rf nws Drain

• Published date: 03 December 2020
• Date: 03 December 2020
• Publication title: False Bay Echo

Rory McShane says he has become an expert in unblocking pipes. When you enter his house, you are greeted by a large, black industrial bucket, a water scoop and a 2-metre-long 
push rod made of steel and plastic rods to make it flexible.

His house, garden, garage and backyard flat are regularly flooded by sewage, he says, and he is 
left to unblock the pipes himself by 
pushing the push-rod down the pipes.

This, he says, has been going on for almost 10 years, and it has become more frequent in recent years with little help from the City of Cape Town.

Mr McShane said a clean-up team from the City's department of sanitation, who tended to one of his call-outs, a few years back blamed the food outlets at Valyland, saying the pipes were clogged due to irresponsible disposal of fat.

This could not be confirmed by the City of Cape Town.

He said he had spoken to Valyland centre management about the problem and they said a plumber would look at the pipes but not much had changed since.

Mr McShane has two manholes on his property - one in the front garden and one in an alley on the side of his house. There is a third in the main road directly in front of his garage.

When it rains, the manholes fill up and overflow and with the stormwater comes sewage that runs down the alley on the side of his house, down his driveway and enters his garage, the flat in the back garden and an enclosed veranda (stoep) where his washing machine is.

He said he had had to replace his washing machine three times due to water damage, waterproof the garage and flat walls and dig trenches around the manholes to manage the flow of water.

He said faeces could be seen in the water and he had found a few hairnets.

He only let his flat on short-term during the summer.

"I can't expose any tenant to this."

He said he reported the problem to the City every time it happened but little had been done to remedy the problem. He provided the Echo with two reference numbers generated by the City's SMS line from calls he logged on Friday October 30 and Friday November 6. But no 
one attended to the problem, he said.

"As a ratepayer, I have exhausted all my options. What can I do? I take my push rod, and I have to resolve the problem myself."

During the Echo's visit on Thursday November 19, an oily substance could be seen on the grid of the manhole and on the road around the manhole in front of the Old Apostolic Church in Lower Kinrae Crescent.

Mr McShane said "someone" had been there earlier that day and...